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
Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles in England, 366 in Wales and 11 in the Channel Islands. A Simm is a mountain the British Isles that is over high and has a prominence of at least . The word comes from Six-hundred Metre Mountain. There are currently 2,754 recorded Simms in the British Isles, including 2,188 Scottish Simms, 192 English Simms, 149 Welsh Simms, 1 Isle of Man Simm, and 224 Irish Simms. By definition, all Simms are also TuMPs (see below) and most, if not all, are mountains, depending on whether 600 metres or 2,000 feet (610 m) (e.g. a ), is used as the