Ben Cruachan
6 classifications here — Current County/UA Top, Trail 100, Marilyn, HuMP, Simm and Murdo — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.
- Height
- 1127 m · 3,698 ft
- Prominence
- 880 m
- Grid reference
- NN 06968 30464
- Coordinates
- 56.42684, -5.13180
- County / area
- Argyll and Bute
- Region
- Glen Etive to Glen Lochy
- OS Landranger
- 50
- OS Explorer
- 377W
- Summit feature
- rock 3m from trig point
- Key col
- NN190413 (247 m)
About Ben Cruachan
Ben Cruachan is the highest ground in Argyll and Bute, and the high point of a ring of summits known as the Cruachan Horseshoe. That ring encloses the reservoir feeding the Cruachan Dam, a pumped-storage hydroelectric station built inside a cavern within the mountain.
Beyond Cruachan itself the horseshoe takes in a second Munro, Stob Daimh, the Corbett Beinn a' Bhuiridh, and a number of lesser tops. The name carries beyond the hill: "Cruachan" served as the battle cry of the Campbell and MacIntyre clans.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Ben Cruachan (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.
Access rights here
Yes Right to roam: Statutory right of responsible access to most land and inland water.
Yes Wild camping: Wild camping is broadly lawful under the 2003 Act.
General position for Scotland — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in Scotland · check another location.
Daylight at this summit today
- Sunrise
- —
- Sunset
- —
- Daylight
- —
- Civil twilight ends
- —
Computed astronomically for 56.427, -5.132. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (1127 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
trig point destroyed.
The recorded summit point is rock 3m from trig point. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.
- Survey method
- Leica RX1250
- Record revised
- 11-Nov-14
- Drop measured from
- NN190413 · 247 m
Classification history: summit measured as 1127.0m.
Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.
The Ben Cruachan group
6 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Ben Cruachan as the independent hill at its head.
| Summit | Height | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| Stob Dearg | 1,103 m | 98 m |
| Drochaid Ghlas | 1,024 m | 91 m |
| Stob Daimh | 999 m | 135 m |
| Stob Garbh | 982 m | 51 m |
| Sron an Isean | 967 m | 55 m |
| Meall Cuanail | 920 m | 95 m |
Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.
Nearest listed peaks
| Peak | Height | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Stob Dearg | 1103.1 m | 0.8 km |
| Meall Cuanail | 920.2 m | 0.9 km |
| Drochaid Ghlas | 1024.4 m | 1.4 km |
| Stob Daimh | 999.2 m | 2.5 km |
| Stob Garbh | 981.7 m | 2.6 km |
| Sron an Isean | 966.6 m | 3 km |