As you may know, the bothy features on the cover of the local OS Explorer map. But if you go there now, you’ll find the view has changed slightly – the chimney pot has a different shape.
The reason is that sadly the old pot, fitted in 2016 at the same time as the stove, was recently broken. There was also a recent incident in which visitors had to vacate the bothy because the CO monitor went off, though whether that was due to the broken chimney, issues with the flue connecting the stove to it, or a portable gas heater taken in by visitors (please don’t do this!) was unclear. So we needed to check the stove and flue as well as fitting a new pot.
Luckily for me, Richard Grummitt also had a roof and chimney to check out at Dubs Hut, so five of us went up to the bothies on Sunday (11 Feb). A smoke test on the stove (photo below) showed it to be working well, with no smoke leaks. [But when using the stove, do be aware of the damper on the pipe at the back of the stove: if you close the damper too much the stove will fill with smoke.]
While others mixed the cement to refasten the chimney capstone, and then fit the new pot on top of it, I played my role of unnecessary middle management in the background (with camera). Lots of thanks to Richard, Dave Moorat and Peter and Jo Popham for making a potentially difficult job look easy.
We then went on to Dubs Hut, where thankfully there turned out to be no problem – just some misplaced extra slates to clear – so I was able to be well on my way home to Inveresk before dark.
And the difference? In case you didn’t spot it, the old chimney pot was the straight version. The new one is identical except that its base is splayed out slightly: we hope that will make it a little more robust. A very small difference, but the OS really need to take a new photo 🙂
Warnscale Head 