Ben Nevis the summit only to find "fragments of earthen and glass ware, chicken bones, corks, and bits of paper". It was not until 1847 that Ben Nevis was confirmed by the Ordnance Survey as the highest mountain in Britain and Ireland, ahead of its rival Ben Macdhui. The summit observatory was built in the summer of 1883, and would remain in operation for 21 years. The first path to the summit was built at the same time as the observatory and was designed to allow ponies to carry up supplies, with a maximum gradient of one in five. The opening of
Ben Macdui top of Ben Macdui on 7 October 1859, Queen Victoria wrote: "It had a sublime and solemn effect, so wild, so solitary—no one but ourselves and our little party there ... I had a little whisky and water, as the people declared pure water would be too chilling." Ben Macdui Ben Macdui () is the second highest mountain in the United Kingdom (in absolute height) after Ben Nevis, and the highest in the Cairngorms National Park. After the defeat of Domnall mac Uilliam in 1187, Donnchad II, Earl of Fife, acquired Strathavon, a territory stretching from Ballindalloch to Ben Macdui;