Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles. Standing at 1,344 metres (4,409 ft) above sea level, it is located at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, close to the town of Fort William.
The mountain is a popular destination attracting an estimated 100,000 ascents a year, around three-quarters of which use the Pony Path from Glen Nevis.The 700-metre (2,300 ft) cliffs of the north face are among the highest in the United Kingdom, providing classic scrambles and rock climbs of all difficulties for climbers and mountaineers. They are also the principal locations in the UK for ice climbing.

The summit, which is the collapsed dome of an ancient volcano, features the ruins of an observatory which was continuously staffed between 1883 and 1904. The meteorological data collected during this period are still important for understanding Scottish mountain weather.

Ben Nevis forms a massif with its neighbour to the northeast, Càrn Mòr Dearg. Both mountains are among the nine in Scotland over 4,000 feet (1,200 m); Aonach Beag and Aonach Mòr also being located on the Nevis massif, with Ben Macdui, Braeriach, Cairn Toul, Sgor an Lochain Uaine and Cairn Gorm being located in the Cairngorms.
Western flank of the Nevis massif; from Sgùrr Dhòmhnuill.
The western and southern flanks of Ben Nevis rise 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) in about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the floor of Glen Nevis - the longest and steepest hill slope in Britain with the result that the mountain presents an aspect of massive bulk on this side.

In addition to the main 1,344 m (4,409 ft) summit, Ben Nevis has two subsidiary "tops" listed in Munro's Tables, both of which are called Càrn Dearg ("red hill").The higher of these, at 1,221 metres (4,006 ft), is situated to the northwest, and is often mistaken for Ben Nevis itself in views from the Fort William area. The other Càrn Dearg (1,020 m) juts out into Glen Nevis on the mountain's southwestern side. A lower hill, Meall an t-Suidhe (711 metres (2,333 ft)), is located further west, forming a saddle with Ben Nevis which contains a small loch, Lochan an t-Suidhe. The popular tourist path from Glen Nevis skirts the side of this hill before ascending Ben Nevis' broad western flank.
Ben Nevis is all that remains of a Devonian volcano that met a cataclysmic end in the Carboniferous period around 350 million years ago. Evidence near the summit shows light coloured granite (which had cooled in subterranean chambers several kilometres beneath the surface) lies among dark basaltic lavas (that only form on the surface). The two lying side-by-side is evidence the huge volcano collapsed in on itself creating an explosion comparative to Thera (2nd millennium BC) or Krakatoa (1883). The mountain is now all that remains of the imploded inner dome of the volcano.Its form has been extensively shaped by glaciation.

[Wikipedia]