Read the judge's green questionnaire on Loch Ossian YHA

There were two guests when I visited Loch Ossian YHA. Which is not surprising when it’s a Wednesday in late September.

One guest was from Hungary. The surprising aspect was that the other was Edith, an 86-year-old who has been visiting the remote Scottish loch since 1967.

She is staying for 10 nights and, as per usual, will take the train to do her big shop in Mallaig for the duration, then manage to take all of her waste away squeezed into a single plastic bottle. How very resourceful.

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• Gallery: Loch Ossian YHA

Apart from compostable fruit and veg, you have to take your waste away from Loch Ossian YHA (there is no fridge or microwave) because it is, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere.

Accessible only by train, the two-dorm YHA is a mile’s walk from Corrour rail station (the highest point of the rail network in Britain).

The nearest road, as manager Nick Priest points out, is 25 miles that way, and 25 miles that. In other words, it is 1,000 square miles of Scottish moor and mountains without a metal road.

Remote enough for you? It is for Edith, and the lucky/plucky other 3,000 souls who stay every year, with their own views way down Loch Ossian and no other building in sight.

There are three munroes close by (hills over 3,000ft) and 13 walkable in a day. The stunning location encourages 30,000 people a year to use Corrour station - 10 per cent for the YHA, more for the lodge on the estate and others for the B&B at the station (which has a restaurant, handy for amateur YHA-ers).

The dorms sleep 12 men and 8 women. Most come for the walking (it’s easier to tick off munroes when halfway up). Others to fish. Or read. Others are campers driven out of their tents by midges.

Nobody comes to listen to music or go on the internet because there are no plugs to use.

It’s a hardy place. Nick takes the rain gauge readings for the Met Office. This year’s downpours have been magnificent for mushrooms and blueberries, he tells me.

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