The Bothy Experience, based in Glamis North of Dundee has expanded its business over the years to become a captivating site for travellers to learn about Scottish life while enjoying homegrown, award-winning gin. Kim Cameron celebrates her strong love of Scottish culture and tradition with her work at the bothy. Opening it to the public, she believes is a valuable asset for educating people on the majestic history of Scotland, along with gaining an insight to her gin production.
Her award-winning gin business began with a goal to be sustainable, making the most of what the land has to offer, not be wasteful and in this being true to the generations that went before. Kim began making jams from the rich offering of fruits available across her native Angus, and in looking to use the surplus fresh berry juice she experimented infusing this with gin, and with that The Gin Bothy was born. Her motivation is to safeguard the heritage of this land and her vision has been part realized by the establishment of The Bothy Experience through which she has been able to archive and showcase this bygone era at the root of the landscape from which she harvests the essence of her products.
Scotland’s Bothies were a haven, providing shelter to those working our land and producing our food. Within their walls people came together and stories and meals were shared often with music and song enjoyed around a warm fire. She is an ambassador in the truest sense of Scotland’s culture, traditions, people and activities including country sports and her business is rooted in this therefore, where it may have made good business sense to relocate her growing industry to a better suited urban location and maybe even shield her loyalties to the country sports industry, Kim remains steadfast in her rural position and committed to the values and roots of her business.
Visitors from around the world can enter The Bothy free of charge and learn about life in our rural Scotland. It is an important part of the experience for Kim that it is free, just as the Bothies have always been made freely available to those that used them. The tasting rooms are furnished respectfully to recreate that same atmosphere where a fire is lit and strangers are invited in where amidst warmth, food, drink, music and song friendships are forged. Kim offers historical talks along with music, poetry, and tales in the bothy all apart of contributing to create the perfect atmosphere for people to connect with the traditional bothy. Through collaboration with local authors and historians the experience offers a historical insight to visitors in a creative way.
She supports her staff in balancing their families with their employment, a growing team, many of whom are women from across her local community thereby she provides local all year round employment which in turn supports schools and other businesses and in fact, community.
The brand that now is The Gin Bothy continues to grow and to flourish but Kim feels there is so much more work still to be done, not just in growing her business but in growing the message she cares so much about. To learn, to understand, to safeguard and embrace our heritage, our natural landscape, our culture and our traditions as a people and protect these for future generations.