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
Munro Munro A Munro () is a mountain in Scotland with a height over , the best known being Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. Munros are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet (1856–1919), who produced the first list of such hills, known as "Munro's Tables", in 1891. The publication of the original list is usually considered to be the epoch event of modern peak bagging. The list has been the subject of subsequent variation. The 2012 revision, published by the Scottish Mountaineering Club, has 282 Munros and 227 subsidiary tops. "Munro bagging" is the activity of