Corrour Bothy

Corrour Bothy is a simple stone building on Mar Lodge Estate, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

It is located below Coire Odhar between The Devil's Point and Cairn Toul on the western side of the River Dee in the Lairig Ghru.

The bothy is a single room with a fireplace and chimney in its northern gable. Its dimensions are 6m by 3.6m (Tait 2006). There is a toilet in the wooden extension to the building. It is used as a mountain refuge and as a starting point for ascents of Munros including The Devil's Point, Cairn Toul, and Braeriach.

The name Corrour is used as a name for the locality as well as specifically as a name for the bothy itself, the name being derived from Coire Odhar according to Watson (1975), who continues:

... was named after the wide Coire Odhar or dun corrie, which stretches behind the bothy from The Devils Point round to Cairn Toul

In Watson (1975) the author gives the local pronunciation as Corower, but without explanation. However in Gordon (1948) the section "Hints on Gaelic pronunciation" appears to suggest the final-vowels of Coire (and corrie) are dropped to give kor, and that the dh in Odhar are silent because they follow a vowel—giving what sounds like kor-Oar, or like the cor-ower suggested in Watson (1975).

In spite of the earlier work Watson (1975) and his understanding of Gaelic—and its local dialect—Dixon & Green (1995) suggest an alternative origin for the place name as a shelter for the currour or forester's assistant.

In Watson (1975) the author writes that the people of mar used Coirie Odhar as a summer shieling for their cattle in the early part of the nineteenth century, but in the later part "the area was kept clear for deer".

The original bothy was built in 1877 to house a deer watcher during the summer, and it housed several including Charles Robertson, John Macintosh, and Frank Scott before the estate stopped using the bothy in the 1920s. In Gordon (1948) the author gives some detail about its occupation by deer watchers, continuing:

...
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