Ben Nevis · Beinn Nibheis

About Ben Nevis

No land anywhere within 739 km rises higher than the summit of Ben Nevis, which sits at the western end of the Grampians in Lochaber, just outside Fort William. It is the high point of Scotland, the United Kingdom and the British Isles alike, and around 150,000 people come each year — roughly three in four of them by the Mountain Track out of Glen Nevis.

The other face of the hill is the north face, whose cliffs reach some 700 metres and rank among the tallest in Scotland. They carry scrambles and rock routes across the full range of difficulty, and are the country's principal ice-climbing ground. The Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut, a private alpine hut, gives a view of them. A foot race has been run on the mountain since 1898.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Ben Nevis (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 56.797, -5.004. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

The recorded summit point is no feature: natural ground 10m NW of trig point. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.

Survey method

Leica NA730/Leica GS15

Record revised

07-Nov-17

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 Nevis by train

2 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 Nevis group

2 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Ben Nevis 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