Montane Spine Race Runners Raise £10,000 for Iconic Mountain Bothy, Greg’s Hut

Press Release / 09.06.2021

Runners of the Montane Spine Race have raised over £10,000 to help with the renovation of Greg’s Hut, a much-loved mountain bothy in Cumbria which sits on the Pennine Way.

In early January 2021, the team at Spine Race HQ were made aware that the shelter was in urgent need of repairs with costs estimated around 90,000, a figure which significantly exceeded the funds available to the Mountain Bothies Association for this project. The MBA is a primarily volunteer-led organisation who oversee this shelter among many others across the UK.

With the Winter Spine Race 2021 cancelled due to Covid_19, a virtual version of the event was held instead to fundraise for Greg’s Hut.  Hordes of Spine runners took to their local trails, covering up to 268 miles each (the same distance as the Spine Race) across the month of January.

MBA Chairman Simon Birch said, “The re-roofing of Greg’s Hut is to date the most expensive renovation project undertaken by the MBA. We are therefore especially grateful to The Spine Race for their fantastic effort in raising just over £10,000 towards the costs. The renovation work will ensure the future of the hut as a bothy and mountain refuge for anyone wishing to shelter, as a base for mountain rescue teams, and of course as a much-needed rest-stop for runners of The Spine Race.”

A beautiful painting of the bothy was created by Sarah Fuller, herself a Spine Race finisher, and prints were sold to raise further funds.  More still were raised by John Bamber, a long-term member of the Spine Race team who is a regular fixture in the hut cooking up spicy noodles for freezing runners during the Race.  John produced and packaged packs of his ‘Chilliwack’ noodles which were bought eagerly by the runners.

Greg’s Hut is a small stone cottage which stands at the highest point of the Pennine Way National Trail. It was built in the 19th Century and served as a blacksmith’s shop and housing for local lead miners before being renovated and repurposed by the Mountain Bothies Association in the late 1960s.

It has since served as a shelter to those who explore the local trails and receives around 600 visitors a year.  It is also an essential refuge and refuelling stop for runners of the Montane Spine Race and the safety teams who watch over them, sitting as it does on one of the most rugged and exposed areas of the course.