19:54:50, 14/02/08
Having worked as a leader on the camino de santiago quite a lot, I assume that you're refering to the network of pilgrim's refuges on the route. there's no direct equivalent here but we are pretty well served with budget accommodation.
If any of your students are interested in doing some walking in Scotland I know of many good hostel/ bunkhouse places for accommodation. I often work with groups from France and Spain who do walking tours from hostel to hostel or base themselves in a couple of areas, say Glencoe and Skye. A trip like that can be tailor -made for groups who want to keep the cost down, staying in hostels and bunkhouses and self catering. Other options might include multi-day trekking with camping but this can sometimes work out more expensive for folk coming from abroad as they might need to rent the camping kit. As the previous poster pointed out transport costs are the major factor. britain's mountain and wild rural areas are not generally blessed with a good public transport system! Here in Scotland I often have clients who use one of the backpacker's tour bus services which run round hostels in prime locations, then they take a couple of days out to hike and get to know the area. This is a pretty popular thing to do if visiting Skye for instance.
Unique to Scotland (almost!) is the network of bothies, open mountain shelters, often very basic and in remote settings. However their planned use by large organised groups is not really the done thing.
Joining a mountaineering club such as the Federación Española de Deportes de Montaña y Escalada (FEDME), or the centre excursionista de catalunya (Club Alpí Català) gives you reciprocal rights in uk mountaineering club huts which are extremely good value for money, probably the cheapest form of hostel type accommodation.
Hope this helps.
Ian
www.mountainfreedom.co.uk