Wild Hut 17

Location:
Edmiston Drive, Ibrox, Glasgow



Some colleagues showed a mild interest in building an ‘urban hut’ in Glasgow and with some minor preparation we were soon on the subway after work - bound for Glasgow’s south-side. These colleagues, Ewan Proctor Mason & Gordon Anderson are both season-ticket holders at the infamous Rangers Football Club. They were both aware of a small tract of redundant land to the west of the football stadium which could potentially harbour enough materials for a wild night out.



This part of Glasgow has a very unsavoury reputation, not only for match-day hooliganism but also for real-life murders. There is a noticeable breakdown in the urban fabric here with derelict buildings, storage units and high-rise tower blocks. One of Scotland’s most infamous murderers; Christopher Hutcheson, had once lived in a flat nearby and was thought to have tortured and killed some drug addicts for not paying their bills. He apparently garrotted one of them, chopped up the body and buried them in the back court. This psychopath also attacked people in the courtroom when standing trial. At least he was consistent.



It was with this sinister backdrop that we crossed the stadium overflow carpark and entered a tiny patch of dense woodland. A new railway yard had been extended recently which decimated 80% of this forgotten wild space. The last remaining thicket was situated at a lower level beneath the street and was bound by 2 redundant railway lines to the east and west. One of the old tracks was completely flooded and looked like a deep soupy canal with a fringe of green reeds. The other, to our dismay, contained 2 silhouetted figures spray-painting on the tunnel wall.

 

Much to the displeasure of Ewan and Gordon, we almost universally decided to stand our ground in the hope that they would eventually move off. Without much consultation, I nipped down the embankment towards the group, shown my torch at the pair and started gathering some of the branches which lay strewn on the wet forest carpet. I made sure I was overtly noisy and they soon got spooked and climbed up to the road bridge which overlooked the forest. From their perspective, they were suddenly blind-sided by strange cutting noises and flashing lights.

They tried to provoke a reaction from us by throwing something down then shouting and whistling. They couldn’t figure out what they were dealing with as we stayed quiet and were spread out through the forest. An evening of bushcraft didn’t fit within their frame of reference and so they were obviously uneasy and well-spooked with the situation. After a short time, they mounted their bikes and shouted down – “whit yah dain cuttin aw that wood ya beasts?...ya pure beasts!”  This was the last we heard from them as they sped off westwards towards Drumoyne. 

The Build:
Gordon had conceived the hut design to incorporate 3 sleeping platforms beneath a faceted roof and triangular walls. These all tapered back to a single point meaning that this particular concept was incredibly light on materials. I adapted the entrance for ease of access and built a computerised 3D model. It was just the trick for an evenings build!

For such a tiny patch of forest we were not short of building materials. We gathered enough timber for the whole structure in a very short time and piled it on what looked like an access ramp to forgotten railway platforms. There was a strange fenced-off section of dried plants which looked at first glance like the alien invader - Japanese Knotweed.

 

 

Suddenly strange whistling rang out from around the forest perimeter, covering any possible exit routes. 2 or 3 people where whistling to each other from the bridge to the north and carpark to our east. We watched the situation quietly, somehow feeling that we were being surrounded by a group of youths. As quickly as this threat built-up in our minds it dissolved back into the surrounding city streets and the forest returned to quiet.

We quickly pieced together the structural frame and laddered the walls and roof with twigs, ready to hang the outer skin.

We had noticed that the flooded railway tunnel had a healthy fringe of reeds which we could bale together for roofing tiles. We grabbed some food and completed the outer skin by 2am.

Roughing it:
Due to restricted internal space, we entered the bunks one at a time – awkwardly spreading our weight across these springy twig platforms. Much to my amusement Gordon’s bunk was around 1 foot too short. His feet had to rest on a higher beam in the back corner of the hut. He seemed mildly comfortable although was unable to move all night from this single position. We soon forgot the night’s earlier disruptions and fell asleep as the forest returned to a calm silence.

After a reasonable nights sleep, we woke at first light and packed our gear. Although the weather was reasonable through the night, the hut would have provided some decent shelter and indeed kept us high and dry off the wet forest leaf litter. We had found one of the cities many ‘green lungs’, a wilderness island surrounded by urban infrastructure. We were satisfied with what we had managed to achieve in such a tiny oasis and had successfully scared off the sinister locals. We left the security of the forest gully and re-emerged on the busy roadside looking like cheerful tramps.



Wild Hut 15

The Location:
Hound Point Battery, Dalmeny Estate, Edinburgh



After an early train ride to Edinburgh I met up with some old friends Richard Patterson (360PIX) and Arran Brown (3D Drawing Office) at Haymarket station. I had printed out some plans of a new 3-person hut so they could get a feel for the job in-hand. Richard laughed at my eccentric preparation and discarded the plans on the floor like used tissues (he finds it hard to engage with anything more complicated than a sausage sandwich).

We parked-up just west of Edinburgh in South Queensferry almost directly under the majestic Forth Rail Bridge. Richard proudly said it was also known as the ‘Eiffel Tower of the North’. He was right – its sheer scale is equally comparable to its Parisian cousin and uses 10 times more steel. The Eiffel Tower though has a slick elegance fit for any major European city - where as the Forth Rail Bridge feels intrinsically ‘Scottish’ in the fact that it’s ginger!



We walked along the coastline tack eastwards through Dalmeny Estate where we arrived at the pre-world war concrete bunkers of Hound Point (1914 – 1916). The remains consist of two concrete gun emplacements with a magazine building to the rear.



In addition, it is possible to see traces of hut bases, and a pile of brick rubble near the gun emplacements which may possibly be that of the observation post.
The concrete bunker seemed like a great place to leave our gear as we foraged the windy hillside for materials.

The intense smell of gas filled the forest air. I assumed either Richard or Arran had relieved some pressure after a big breakfast but it turns out that: “a marine vapour recovery unit at Hound Point collects volatile organic compounds (VOC) that would otherwise be released into the environment during ship loading, and processes the VOCs at Dalmeny for reinjection into crude oil, or for use as fuel gas.”

BP run a vast tanker terminal in the estuary and pipe oil to the nearby fuel depot at Dalmeny. Dalgety Bay can be seen across the water which is also radio-active! The dramatic crossings, sandy beaches and thick forests can’t really mask this industrial anarchy. The new forth crossing will add to the visual mayhem.

The build:
Our 3-person hut design was a rhombus, pyramidal structure with 3 internal sleeping platforms. It felt like quite an ambitious and irregular build which was conceived using architectural 3d modelling software. It was a series of triangular planes which maintained a central walkway with plenty head-room.
We scoured the forest for longer poles which would form the main structure. The forest was busy with walkers and cyclists who all stopped to stare at our foraging exploits in total bewilderment.

We lashed some branches together using bark and some biodegradable garden twine. Richard was continually unsure where the pieces should be lashed together. I said he should refer to the detailed 3d plan I had already given him (which I knew lay crumpled in the foot-well of his car). He was also quite keen to close off the entrance door with a wall of timber slats. I suggested he was bonkers and that an entrance to the hut would be a desirable feature!
The basic hut form was erected in only a few hours and the sleeping platforms were bound in place soon after. We drove short posts into the earth beneath each sleeping platform to shorten the unsupported spans which made these thin beams structurally sound.

We used some spindly ferns which carpeted the forest as our roofing material. We spent an hour bundling up vast bails of the foliage which had great façade coverage. We had completed the first half of the outer façade in no time and decided to walk back to town in search of some dinner.

Richard had suffered from terrible hay fever all day (I made many jokes suggesting he shouldn’t cry about it…) His eyes were badly swollen and streaming. It was winter with no flowering plants around? The ferns seemed to release some kind of spore from their underside as we picked them although they are apparently “sneeze-free” with no pollen?

In Slavic folklore, ferns are believed to bloom once a year, during the ‘Ivan Kupala’ night. Although alleged to be exceedingly difficult to find, anyone who sees a "fern flower" is thought to be guaranteed to be happy and rich for the rest of their life. Whatever it was - the pollen count was high and Richard cried about it all day.

Roughing it:
The hut was soon complete and we built a great campfire just outside the entrance with some nearby dry wood. It was around 2am when we retired to our sleeping platforms. I was delighted with the engineering aspect of the build. From the outside it just looked like an elongated tepee, but inside it had a central walkway flanked by sleeping platforms with one cocooned bed platform at the far end.



Richard and Arran slid effortlessly sideways onto their bunks as I wriggled around like a worm trying to find the hood of the sleeping bag which was caught round some branch at my waist. I left it there for a good while as 'sleeping-bag wrestling' was never my strong point. After a while I managed to negotiate the sleeping bag into position and fell asleep with the sound of thrashing wind and industrial bleeps ringing through the trees. We woke around 10am after a warm and comfortable sleep. It was around 1 degree through the night but it could easily have been summer with the fern-façade deflecting the cold wind and rain.  

We felt satisfied in creating this angular fern-cocoon. Missing the smell of gas - we rejoined the estate track and wandered back through the forest to South Queensferry, on the hunt for an all day breakfast. We glanced back as the hut dissolved into the forest.

CLICK to view a 360 interactive tour of the hut construction (by 360PIX):

Watch a video of the hut construction: (x8 speed)



Wild Hut 7

Location – Mugdock Woods, North Glasgow.

Group Hut

‘Experience gathering’ defines humankind’s behavioural and evolutionary makeup. Our perception is the process by which we ingest our experiences in unique ways and store them in the library-vaults of our minds. The sum total of these memories help to define who we are; ‘we are…what we experience!’…maybe.

I decided to take some city kids out into the woods for a spot of ‘experience gathering’…but mainly for grass and timber gathering! My daughter Katie is 6 years old and my girlfriend Kirsty’s niece and nephew (Jamie-Lee & Robert) are both 12. We decided to take them to a vast, deciduous woodland just north of Glasgow to build a shelter big enough for 5 people. I grew up building dens in the woods and feel its something a lot of young kids are missing out on. The woods can be an inspirational and immersive place for a child and can supply real wholesome worthwhile experiences that are hard to shake.

 

To keep it simple, we planned to build a traditional cone-shaped teepee. We picked up the kids around 10am and headed for Mugdock woods just beyond Milngavie. It was dry and sunny, although forecast for rain through the night. We backtracked along the West Highland Way trail until we found a delightful clearing with a ready supply of broken branches nearby. Kirsty armed the team with some scissors and knives and went off to collect bales of long grass for roofing tiles.

 

I was collecting wood when a lady suddenly appeared with some yappy dogs. ‘What’s going on here?’ she said in a stern authoritative voice which instantly annoyed me. I asked her why people can’t pick up fallen branches in the woods in today’s society without raising suspicion? I then proceeded to tell her that most of the mess around this area is from dog-poo. She apologised profusely and disappeared down the trail in a blur of furry yaps.

I managed to find around ten 2.5m long fallen branches which I whittled with the axe until tidy and straight. I arranged them in a circular cone-shape (3m diameter) and bound horizontal rails between each tilted upright (like a ring of triangular ladders). The rails would support the roofing tiles and stop them draping inwards (the more ladder-rails you have essentially means that water will run off rather than drain through. It also has a laminating effect and braces the whole structure rigidly).     

 

I quite fancied a shelter which had a hole in the roof for an internal fire chimney, but heavy rain was forecast so I decided the roof should be closed and the fire located outside near the entrance.

    

It took around 5 hours to gather all the timber and build the main structure. By this time we only had enough grass for around a 5^th of the hut’s roof. We stopped for dinner and decided on a change of material. The team’s hands were cut to ribbons collecting the sharp grass and binding them into bales so we decided on softer bracken instead. This was a much quicker process and the whole roof was complete by 9pm.

Kirsty built a smoky fire which duly dispersed the biting midges and we all sat round to toast marshmallows on sticks. I rolled out the sleeping bags (5 deep) and by 10:30pm the kids were suitably knackered and snuggled up in the hut searching for dreamland. (Although we stayed mostly dry - a more substantial porch would have been a welcome addition to keep out driving rain during the night.) The roofing tiles shed the bulk of the rain exceptionally well and it just goes to show what can be achieved with a little time and allot of effort.

 

Around 7am, a group of walkers appeared outside the hut in matching red wellies (there must have been a sale on), extremely surprised to find that the hut was actually occupied! I slept through the whole event though so would have been completely useless had it been a dangerous situation (I had already checked the internet and most violent crime does happen between Thursday and Sunday, but very rarely in the morning…so I slept soundly!).



Jamie-Lee & Robert



I’m not overly sure what the long term effect of hut building and sleeping rough in the forest would be for the kids. They suffer from an experiential-overload much of the time so I’m not sure if these ‘primitive experiences’ can compete with the likes of Harry Potter, the Nintendo-DS and the X-Factor (although you don’t have to pull blood-sucking ticks out your bum watching x-factor!).

Wilderness Shelter - Mugdock woods