Nick Drainey finds out how to keep Ben Nevis tidy!
Nick Drainey learns that keeping Ben Nevis in good shape for thousands of visitors can be a bit of a tall order!
ON August 17, 1771, James Robertson made the first recorded ascent of Ben Nevis, but did not appear to be that impressed, claiming the “part of the hill towards the top is entirely naked, resembling a heap of stones thrown together confusedly”.
Maybe his lack of enthusiasm can be put down to the fact that Robertson was a botanist collecting specimens for the College Museum of Edinburgh, and there is an apparent lack of flora, though there are plenty of rare small montane species.
It could also be because, although he stated it was “reckoned the highest mountain in Britain”, many people at the time thought Ben Macdui in the Cairngorms was the loftiest point in the land – the Ordnance Survey did not confer the honour on Ben Nevis until 1847.
Whatever his thoughts, his exploits on “The Ben” that day were to be followed by millions of others, with more than 100,000 people now making it to the top each year.
Robertson’s scientific exploits were not to be the last, and perhaps the most impressive was an observatory built in 1883 to measure the weather and staffed until 1904.
The summit of what is an extinct volcano holds a war memorial, a trig point erected by the Ordnance Survey on top of a large, solid cairn, and an emergency shelter.
In many ways, Ben Nevis is unique for a mountain in Scotland, because it is so busy – something that the John Muir Trust, which owns and cares for much of the mountain, works to mitigate.
On a summer’s day the summit can have a partylike atmosphere, with charity walkers and hardened climbers rubbing shoulders as they quietly celebrate making it to the top.
The aim of walking up Ben Nevis for recreation really took off when the observatory was built, as the Pony Track, a path from the foot to the summit, was established at the same time.
At one point, the idea of building a railway up the mountain was mooted, but soon forgotten.
In later years, the Pony Track became known as the Tourist Route, but the use of the name Mountain Track was thought necessary to deter ill-equipped holiday-makers from attempting to go up and getting into difficulty on what is still a strenuous walk.
The weather on Ben Nevis, like so much of Scotland, can be changeable, to say the least.
The summit is lashed by gales and only receives about a fifth of the possible sunshine because of cloud and mist.
There is also snow on or near the summit for most of the year.
Straying from the easy route, especially in poor weather, can lead an unwary walker into considerable difficulty, with some of the toughest rock climbs in Scotland to be found on the north face.
With well in excess of 100,000 visitors, the John Muir Trust, which owns a lot of the land, manages visitor impact by maintaining the Mountain Track, as well as the Steall Gorge trail.
Keeping the path in good condition not only helps walkers, but also keeps them off other areas of the mountain where rare
upland plants and lichen grow.
The trust also carries out wildlife and habitat surveys to help with ecological restoration work, which includes deer control so that native trees, and other habitats, can regenerate.
Alison Austin, the Trust’s Land Manager at Ben Nevis, says, “Any wild mountain place is important in its own right. Our wild environment has an inherent right to be as it is, and not impacted by us.
“It supports a much wider network of life that we don’t recognise, because you need specialists to identify what is there.”
There are also regular litter collections – one quarterly litter clearance on the summit of Ben Nevis filled 18 bin bags with rubbish left on the hill – with 10 of them just banana skins!
But Alison is keen to stress that Ben Nevis is important to the local community and economy.
“It underpins a lot of the local economy,” she adds. “It is important that everyone has the right to come.”
“Those 160,000 boots passing up the hill are going to be passing over the path twice because it is a return journey,” Alison’s colleague, Nathan Berrie, a Conservation Ranger with the trust, adds.
But the work of the trust means that those tens of thousands of visitors each year can still follow in the footsteps of James Robertson, while the mountain is left in good condition.