Huts, bothies and buildings out-of-doors: an exploration of the practice, heritage and culture of ‘out-dwellings’ in rural Scotland

Hunt, Rachel (2016) Huts, bothies and buildings out-of-doors: an exploration of the practice, heritage and culture of ‘out-dwellings’ in rural Scotland. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This project provides an insight into the culture and practice of what has been termed ‘out-dwelling’, a cumulative term for huts and bothies. In doing so it draws attention to Scottish rural leisure and seeks to explore the materialities, experiences and practices of the ‘out-dwelling’ scene. As such, it focuses upon both the buildings and their users, speaking to the intimate geographies of this culture, as well as to its broader cultural significance. Part of this task involves an exploration of landscape, and of the means by which out-dwellings facilitate an engagement with physical surrounds beyond their built form. Just as this thesis seeks to situate the intimate interior of being in buildings, it also displays the ‘out-dwelling’ world through a broader lens, viewing these buildings and their users as part of a broader cultural movement, informed by the social history of land-use and ownership in rural Scotland. Inspired by an interest in hutting as a political act, this thesis also explores the critical edge to this potentially radical culture and situates ‘out-dwelling’ within a broader international hutting history. In doing so, this thesis enables a fuller understanding of the past, present and, to a certain extent, the future of such practice within rural Scotland.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: out-dwelling, hut, bothy, rural, Scotland.
• Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences > Geography
• Supervisor's Name: Lorimer, Professor Hayden and Philo, Professor Chris
• Date of Award: 2016
• Depositing User: Dr Rachel Hunt
• Unique ID: glathesis:2016-8057
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 06 Apr 2017 09:45
• Last Modified: 08 Nov 2017 12:00
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/8057