I'm thinking of doing a walk out via Meanach Bothy (or is it Meannanach? Seems to depend who you ask...) in Glen Nevis in a couple of weeks, assuming the weather hasn't extended to full on fire and brimstone by then.
Does anyone know how big it is and how busy it gets in winter, particularly compared to the other bothies nearby? It'd be nice to have some idea of how likely we are to have to use our backup bivy bags...
Two rooms. Both have been fitted out by the MBA, one was done in the last year or so, so it's quite comfy. There's a bed platform in the right hand room as well. I've stopped there once and used it a couple of times when supporting Ramsay Rounds and only seen two other people there. It's further from the roads than places like Lairig Leachach.
I've seen both spellings as well, it's got "Meanach" painted at the side of the door.
Is the writing on the wall (metaphorically speaking) the Anglicised version then? I'm assuming that the pronunciation is more like "me annach" or "may annach" than "mean ach" if you see what I mean?
Well the first definition works quite well , the second does not really convey how nice a place it is - not as good a scenic location as some and a bit boggy around, but really handy location, and in good nick last time I was there
Haven't stayed there. The one time it was a possibility I found that the Abhainn Rath was totally unfordable when approaching the bothy from the S.
Maybe it was just a particularly wet time but the ground to the W of the bothy and just E of Tom an Eite has to be some of the wettest and boggiest I've encountered.
I meant that "Meanach" could in principle be Irish, as that spelling is an Irish word meaning the same thing. But the idea of a roving Irishman going round translating place names doesn't seem all that likely...
A lot of the old celtic languages have very similar words: buachaille (Gaeilc) and bugail (Welsh) both meaning shepherd for example.
On a complete aside: does anyone know if the Abhain Rath has ever been canoed? I've done a search and can't find anything to suggest it has. It would be a very remote paddle indeed with no easy access at either end though you could of course paddle along Loch Treig The upper part from Meadhanach to Stoanaig bothy looks OK apart from the obvious set of falls about halfway, but the lower part looks very sporting and committing. Not that I'm (or ever was) good enough to paddle it.
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