Overview of Ben Nevis

A granite mountain rising to a height of 1344m (4409 feet) to the east of Fort William in Lochaber, Ben Nevis is the highest peak not only in Scotland but in Great Britain. In association with Carn Mor Dearg to the northeast it forms a vast northwest-facing horseshoe. The northeast face of the mountain is possibly the most interesting with a grand array of cliffs composed of tough rocks that are suitable for climbing. The Tower and Castle Ridges and the imposing North-East Buttress are also popular with summer climbers. The 2-mile (3-km) long 610-m (2000-foot) high headwall is the most formidable rock face in Britain and provides the most challenging ice and snow climbing in the country.

On the northeast ridge of Ben Nevis stand the ruins of a weather observatory that was manned between 1883 and 1904. A pony track was created to provide access to the observatory where Nobel prize-winning physicist Charles Wilson developed his ideas for the cloud chamber which made the tracks of ionising particles - atoms - visible. William Speirs Bruce, leader of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902-04) worked in the observatory and learned to ski here. For a while the observatory operated as a temperance hotel and in 1911 a Model T Ford was driven to the summit.

The first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis was in 1771 by the botanist James Robertson and other early ascents were made by the African explorer Mungo Park and the poet John Keats (1818). In 2000 Ben Nevis was acquired by the John Muir Trust. Ben Nevis became popular with tourists following the opening of the West Highland Railway to Fort William in 1894 and in the following year the first Ben Nevis Hill Race was was run from foot to summit and back again. This event now takes place each year in September. An international Peace Cairn was erected on Ben Nevis by Bert Bissell from Dudley who made his 104th ascent of the mountain on his 90th birthday in 1992.

A 4.5m (15 foot) tunnel associated with the Lochaber Hydro-Electric Scheme, supporting the Fort William Aluminium Smelter, cuts through the mountain, emerging at a height of 170m (560 feet) on the northwestern flank of the mountain above Fort William.