Not a member?
Register and login now.

Issue 42 - Nevis finally cleared of cairns

Scotland Magazine Issue 42

Scotland Magazine Issue 42
December 2008

 

This article is 3 years old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Copyright Scotland Magazine © 1999-2012. All rights reserved. To use or reproduce part or all of this article please contact us for details of how you can do so legally.

Nevis finally cleared of cairns

Nevis finally cleared of cairns (Issue 42)

Volunteers have at last completed a gruelling five year programme to remove more than 120 unsightly cairns from the summit of Ben Nevis.

The John Muir Trust – owners of Ben Nevis since 2000 – cleared the cairns to preserve the wild and remote feeling at the top of Britain's highest mountain, and to prevent climbers believing they were following a path.

The cairns, most of them only a few feet high, have been randomly built up over the years by walkers. They are often started by a collection of stones to cover up litter left on the summit.

John Muir Trust work parties dismantling these cairns also picked up hundreds of bags of litter from Ben Nevis. Their excavations even uncovered a piano and wheelchair....

 

To read the rest of this article you can do any of the following.

Subscribe to Scotland Magazine. Subscribers have full access to all articles online for as long as they are a subscriber.
Activate your online subscription here.

Buy this issue of Scotland Magazine from our online store.

Unlock this article. Register as a member and you can unlock 25 articles for free. Already a member? Login now and read this article in full.