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 Nevis marked with a large, solidly built cairn atop which sits an Ordnance Survey trig point. The summit is the highest ground for over , before the Scandinavian Mountains in western Norway are reached, which contain many peaks higher than Ben Nevis. The summit is much higher than the Faroe Islands as well as the rest of the British Isles. The ruined walls of the observatory are a prominent feature on the summit. An emergency shelter has been built on top of the observatory tower for the benefit of those caught out by bad weather. Although the base of the tower