Ben Nevis, at the end of the West Highland Way — some say its name means “hill of heaven,” while others claim it means “cloud-capped mountain”. Either interpretation is appropriate, for the brooding summit of Ben Nevis, frequently shrouded in mist, certainly seems to reach up to the sky. How high is Ben Nevis? This great massif in northwestern Scotland, with a total height of 4,406 feet (1,343 meters), is in fact the tallest mountain in all of the British Isles. (Pictured: Ben Nevis: Britain’s Highest Mountain)
For anyone who makes the fairly easy climb to the top, the reward is a breathtaking panorama. (On a clear day the view extends for some 75 miles, or 120 kilometers, in all directions.) Far off in the distance along the western horizon are the dark hills of Mull, Skye, and the other islands of the Inner Hebrides, rising above the shimmering Atlantic. To the north the majestic crests of the Western Highlands billow off into the haze, with lakes glittering in the intervening straths (wide valleys) and narrower glens. To the south and east are still more rumpled ranges of hills and glens—the wild and lonely Grampian Mountains. And stretching off to the northeast is the Great Glen, or Glen More, an extremely straight valley that extends all the way across Scotland along a giant fracture in the earth’s crust. The most famous of the several lakes strung out along its length is Loch Ness, a sheet of water some 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and up to 754 feet (230 meters) deep.
The dramatically rounded hulk of Ben Nevis, overlooking this grand sweep of scenery, began to take form some 350 million years ago during a very intense mountain-building episode known as the Caledonian Revolution. In contrast to most of the other mountains in the area, which were formed by the folding of ancient basement rocks, Ben Nevis is the product of volcanic activity. A gigantic plug of very hard, erosion-resistant lava, it is encircled by two rings of granitic rocks that also welled up from deep down in the earth’s crust. The subsequent slow but general upheaval of the Scottish Highlands raised the summit of Ben Nevis to its present height.
Further refinement of the mountain’s contours took place during the recurring ice ages over the last 2 million years. Grinding repeatedly across the landscape, the great ice sheets tended to scrape away the soil and plane less resistant rock formations, reducing Ben Nevis height. Valleys such as Glen Nevis along the southern foot of the mountain were deepened and greatly enlarged. A lovely wooded glen today, enlivened by several waterfalls on the rushing Water of Nevis, the valley is strewn with glacial erratics—large boulders that were picked up elsewhere and dropped there by the melting glaciers. (The nearby Great Glen is a large-scale example of valley glaciation.)
On Ben Nevis itself, the most conspicuous Ice Age remnants are spectacular cirques on the northeastern side. These deep steep-sided, basinlike depressions were hollowed out when glaciers formed in the heads of formerly shallow mountain valleys. Snow blown over the mountaintop by prevailing southwesterly winds tended to accumulate in sheltered hollows on the northeastern side. As glaciers grew and began their slow creep down the mountainside, the great masses of ice scooped out the bedrock to form these characteristic bowl-like hollows.
Glaciers persisted on Ben Nevis until less than 10,000 years ago, and even today it would not take much of a climate change to trigger their return. The area is wet and cool, without much real summer. In nearby Fort William, which stands slightly above sea level at the foot of Ben Nevis, the average annual rainfall is about 80 inches (2,000 millimeters), and the average temperature in July reaches only 58° F (14° C). The sun, moreover, shines on the average for only 2.7 hours per day the year round.
Ben Nevis, with its much higher elevation and more continual cloud cover, conditions are even cooler and wetter. Due to the height of Ben Nevis, snow accumulates very rapidly on the mountain slopes, especially in spring, and often remains throughout summer and into autumn. At elevations above 3,900 feet (1,200 meters), semi-permanent snow fields are found in sheltered cirques and ravines where the sunlight rarely penetrates. It has been estimated that if it were only about 1,000 feet (300 meters) higher, authentic glaciers could form on the mountain. Even as it is, just a very slight drop in average temperatures could bring about renewed glaciation on Ben Nevis.
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