The Bothy Kitchen
Designing and building any kitchen is no mean feat but a kitchen in a Bothy? First of all bothies are traditionally places of basic shelter and as such have no cooking facilities save for those that people bring so there was no precedent for us to follow once we had decided we wanted people to be able to prepare and cook food.
Secondly the Bothy is pretty tiny. Having allocated a wall with 1800mm of linear space for the kitchen it was then time to consider what the kitchen should consist of, appliance wise and what the unit should look like.
How the kitchen fits into the Bothy
We decided to include a fridge, a two ring electric hob, a small, multifunctional ‘Sage’ oven and a sink. Also, there is a kettle on the worktop and a toaster which is stored on a shelf.
We went to cabinet maker Gavin Turcan who has a workshop in Aberdeenshire and asked for his thoughts. He suggested using recycled wood. In order to give the whole kitchen area a lighter feel, we decided to use old whisky staves, leaving gaps between them and also having shelves without doors. We think it has worked beautifully.
He has slso built a wall storage unit.
The Kitchen
The icing on the cake is the amazing worktop that Mirrl, a small company in Glasgow made for us, based on the colours of the Eve Campbell wallhanging that takes pride of place in the bothy.
Karen McPhail mug on the Mirrl worktop
Its always difficult to know what to include in terms of cutlery, utensils, plates and bowls. We have prepared food in here a couple of times ourselves and are always open to suggestions from our guests.
We have recently added a composting caddy for raw fruit and vegetable trimmings which we add to our compost heap. This is at the heart of the fertility in the fruit and vegetable garden which guests can tap into. There’s not much growing at the moment but in a few months there will be an abundance to choose from.
In a further Blog I will give more details about some of the local makers whose products feature in the kitchen.