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 of the mountain track from the starting point at Achintee all the way up to John's Wall; this year the maintenance was focused on a difficult middle section which was most in need of attention. After six months of hard work and battling with the weather, the contractors have now upgraded 1 km of the mountain track which is roughly 30% of the overall maintenance this project will carry out. The next contracted works will resume towards the end of September, after the Ben Nevis Race, for stage two of the project. Volunteer effort has already been a huge help