Ben Cruachan

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

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

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 56.427, -5.132. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

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.

Reaching Ben Cruachan by train

3 National Rail stations sit within 8 km of the summit — close enough to make a car-free day of it. Distances are straight lines, not walking routes.

Each station page lists every hill in its reach, long-distance paths from the door and a live-times link — see all stations with hills in reach. Station positions from NaPTAN (OGL v3.0).

Get food nearby

3 places to eat or drink within 10 km of the summit, rated under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (Scotland runs its own Food Hygiene Information Scheme, a pass/fail equivalent).

Classifications and ratings are the local authority's own and can be coarse — this is a lead, not a guarantee of opening hours or that food is served to non-residents. Follow a name through to the official rating page to check, and confirm before you rely on it.

Food hygiene data from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland (Open Government Licence v3.0). Distances and directions computed by OpenFell from the summit.

The Ben Cruachan group

6 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Ben Cruachan as the independent hill at its head.

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