Ben Nevis Summit
Summit of Ben Nevis
Ben Nevis summit cairn and trig point partially buried in deep snow
Photo by livepine, licensed under creative commons
The summit of Ben Nevis comprises a large stony plateau of about 100 acres The highest point is marked with a large, solidly built cairn approximately 10 feet high on which sits the Ordnance Survey trig point.
Looking through observatory ruins window
Photo by Ben-Nevis.com, © 2009 Ben-Nevis.com
The ruined walls of the 1893 observatory are a prominent feature on the summit and are a particularly unusual feature to exist on any Scottish mountain due to the harsh conditions throughout most of the year.
A small, emergency shelter sits on top of the observatory tower for the benefit of those caught out unexpectedly by bad weather, however, it should never be relied upon as a 'stop-over point,' indeed, two high-altitude shelters were removed from the Cairngorm plateau after a 1972 tragedy when six teenagers died in the snow after failing to reach them. The shelter on Ben Nevis' neighbouring summit, Carn Dearg, was removed in 2004 as 'the shelter is often buried in snow in winter and is frequently difficult to locate and enter; valuable time and energy may be spent looking for it in circumstances where it would be better to descend to safety.'
There are no plans to remove the emergency shelter on the observatory tower.
Although the base of the tower is slightly lower than the true summit of the mountain, the roof of the shelter overtops the trig point by several feet.
Did you know?
The shelter on the old observatory tower is the highest man-made structure in the UK
A war memorial to the dead of World War II is located next to the observatory, a short distance from the summit cairn and trig point.
War memorial and summit cairn / trig point
Photo by theparadigmshifter, licensed under creative commons
The view from the UK's highest point is as extensive as it is unrivalled. Under ideal conditions, it can extend to almost 200 kilometres (125 miles) and includes such mountains and ranges as the Torridon Hills in the Northwest Highlands, Morven in Caithness, Lochnagar in Aberdeenshire, Ben Lomond, the most southerly munro, Barra Head in the Outer Hebrides and even as far as County Antrim in Northern Ireland.