Bothy Project is a unique and independent charitable organisation operating in a set of rural contexts in Scotland, providing creative residencies in bespoke small-scale, off-grid creative residency spaces to explore creativity, landscape and living simply.
We provide creative residencies for practitioners in visual arts, craft & design, music, literature and performance, as well as thinkers, researchers and people local to each bothy. Residents are able to use their residencies to explore creativity, landscape and living simply. Since 2021 the bothies have operated as sentinels of communication with the best experience and learning generated by residents shared widely through our new public programme.
Bothy Project was initiated by artist Bobby Niven and architect Iain MacLeod in 2011. Bothy Project’s initial bothy was Inshriach Bothy, built as a part of the 2011 RSA Residencies for Scotland Programme it sat on the banks of the river Spey within a traditional Scottish woodland area of the Cairngorms National Park. After hosting over 200 residencies, Inshriach Bothy retired as a residency location in February 2023.
Sweeney’s Bothy is located on the Isle of Eigg, and was created by Bothy Project in collaboration with artist Alec Finlay as part of Creative Scotland’s Year of Natural Scotland 2013.
Pig Rock Bothy was commissioned in 2014 by the National Galleries of Scotland, as part of Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland. It’s design is based on bold and simple vernacular building forms and references the windswept North West Highland landscape of Assynt. The building resided in the grounds of the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh between 2014-2022 hosting some of the gallery’s education and outreach programme.
We are working on a number of exciting new partnerships and plans for bothies in the Cairngorms National Park and beyond, of which there will be news soon.
Bothy Project is a charity supported by its trading arm Bothy Stores which donates a portion of its profit each year to support artists’ mobility and access to the Scottish landscape.