The Brunachan Group
The Brunachan Group is a registered Scottish charity Registration No. SC000687
2023, 2024 & 2025 TRI-ENNIAL REPORT
This is the eighth triennial report produced by The Brunachan Group, covering the years 2023, 2024 & 2025. During these three years, the activities of The Brunachan Group have been affected by health & medical issues and we have not been able to climb away from the low level of activity enforced by the Covid pandemic of the three previous years..
2023 was a relatively normal year with Harry & Agnes Watson leading activities at Hopehead Cottage. Autumn 2022 saw the cottage left in good condition and Harry and Agnes were relieved to find the cottage in good order at their first visit in April 2023. The cottage was open (under Harry & Agnes’s supervision) for routine use, predominantly at weekends, and maintenance work during the Spring, Summer and into late Autumn.
Harry and Agnes returned in April 2024 and reported that the cottage had survived the winter in good condition. It was then that the health and medical issues brought activities to a lower level. The Chairman and Secretary/ Treasurer were saddened to be told by Harry that Agnes had unexpectedly passed away. Harry, unsurprisingly indicated, that he would not be visiting the cottage on his own and he stepped down from his Maintenance Organiser role. The Chairman has not used bothies for some while due to Sleep Aponea whilst the Secretary / Treasurer was unable to step into the gap left by Harry’s loss due to a knee injury which prohibited cycling activity. The cottage remained unvisited other than by Richard Woods from Kingledoors Farm during the rest of the year.
Medical difficulties worsened in 2025. Just when cycling fitness might be gained and a visit to the cottage (cycling from Lanark or Carstairs) planned by the Secretary/Treasurer, he was diagnosed with skin cancer and subsequently a secondary lung cancer was also diagnosed. For Richard, nearly 50 medical appointments between late April and the end of December ensued, including two fairly serious operations under general anaesthetic. There was no option for a visit to the cottage. Harry did summon the strength to visit the cottage one weekend in July with his sister and niece and reported that the cottage was in good order, albeit missing Agnes’s cleaning work, but that was the only arranged opening of the year.
A search continues for a volunteer to succeed Harry as Maintenance Organiser.
Hopehead continues to be a locked bothy with a good level of equipment and furniture provision. We continue to retain maintenance responsibility for Hopehead.
Maintenance of Glen Sulaig bothy remains in the hands of the owning estate, West Highlands Woodlands. Brunachan Cottage has been closed and locked for nearly 10 years now, with deterioration to ruinous condition now seeming to be inevitable.
We had intended to organise maintenance work at Allt Seilachan bothy in the Ben Armine wilderness during 2024 and then 2025 but the above referenced medical issues have prevented progress on this work. Ben MacGregor of Thurso, who worked with TBG members and Bernard & Betty Heath at Freisgil bothy in 2000 and with the Secretary/Treasurer and Bernard & Betty at the original Allt Seilachan bothy renovation in 2005, continues to keep an eye on the bothy and report its condition. A roof repaint is now required.
We thank Richard Woods at Kingledores Farm for his continuing permission and support for The Brunachan Group’s maintenance work at Hopehead Cottage. We also thank Brian Murkin who continues to examine our accounts free of charge, an unbroken run now approaching forty years. We also record our thanks to Harry & the late Agnes Watson for all their maintenance work at Hopehead. Commiserations were expressed to Harry on the sad loss of Agnes.
From our 2024 Annual Report: It is with sadness that we report the death in early July 2024 of Agnes Watson, wife of Harry Watson, Maintenance Organiser for Hopehead Cottage. Whilst Harry is formally recorded as Hopehead M.O., invariably Harry and Agnes were at the cottage together and much of the enhancement work done at Hopehead by Harry could not have been achieved without the support and physical assistance of Agnes. Agnes was, on her own account, very able with a paintbrush and paint-tray & roller. In the words of Marion Woods at Kingledores Farm ‘Agnes was a lovely lady and will be missed’.
In 2011, The Brunachan Group carried out repairs to the south-east corner of the byre at Brunachan Cottage, not just out of goodwill but because our ladders and other items were stored in the byre. That corner remains intact in the LH photograph below. During the 2017/2018 winter, about 4 years after our stewardship of the bothy ceased, the byre’s southern wall suffered a more catastrophic collapse as shown in the LH photograph. Mick Tighe, of Bohuntin, Roy
Keith Anderson (Chairman), 5 Park Lane, Musselburgh EH21 7HF 0131 665 1778 Richard Genner (Secretary/Treasurer), 9 Aginshill Drive, Taunton, Somerset, TA2 8XD 01823 413729
..
Bridge, a great help in the maintenance of the bothy over 28 years, was engaged by the estate to rebuild the gable wall. The RH photograph shows the completed job. Half way up and one third in from the photograph’s LH edge is a quern stone, which Mick was pleased to be able to incorporate in the rebuild. In previous Annual Reports, we have written about the connection between the Brunachan alluvial fan and quernstone quarrying. (Photos courtesy of Mick Tighe).
Accounts for the year ended 31/12/23
| Accounts for the year ended | 31/12/23 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _Income_Interest | £ 2.61 | Expenditure | Administration |
£00.00 |
| Donations |
5.00 | Maintenance work, | 00.00 | |
| Bednights (Hopehead) | 5.50 | Excess of | Income over Expenditure | 13.11 |
| £13.11 | 13.11 | |||
| Accounts for the year ended | 31/12/24 | |||
| _Income_Interest | £ 50.84 | Expenditure | Administration | £ 0.00 |
| Bednights (Hopehead) | 3.00 | Maintenance work | 0.00 | |
| Donation | 7.00 | Excess of | Income over Expenditure | 60.84 |
| 60.84 | £ 60.84 | |||
| Accounts for the year ended | 31/12/25 | |||
| _Income_Interest | £ 57.76 | Expenditure | Maintenance, Hopehead | £0.00 |
| Bednights (Hopehead) | 3.00 | Administration | 2.40 | |
| Donations |
7.00 | Excess of | Income over Expenditure | 65.36 |
| £67.76 | £67.76 |
Consolidated cash flow statement 1/1/23 - 31/12/25
Brought forward 1/1/23 £2653.65, represented by Nationwide BS £2629.05, RBos £19.50 Cash in Hand £5.10.
Excess of Income over Expenditure 2023 £13.11 2024 £60.84 2025 £65.36
Aggregated excess of Income over Expenditure £139.31
Carry forward 31/12/25 £2792.96, represented by Nationwide BS £2740.26, RBoS £50.00, Cash in hand £2.70
Notes to the accounts
During 2023, following an unsuccessful attempted break-in at Hopehead, Harry Watson renewed the rear door at Hopehead, using materials obtained at no cost. No further maintenance work has been required at Hopehead in the three years covered by these accounts.
During July 2023, a Nationwide Business Saver Account was successfully opened (consequent upon closure of TBG’s Treasurer’s Account by Nationwide) into which the Treasurer’s Account balance and accrued interest was paid. A Royal Bank of Scotland current account was previously opened in August 2022. The beneficial impact on interest earnt is shown in these accounts.
Secretary/Treasurer, June 2026
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