Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain at 1,345 metres, sitting above Fort Willia…

Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain at 1,345 metres, sitting above Fort William in the western Highlands. What you’re climbing is the collapsed dome of an ancient volcano — the rocks at the summit were once the floor of a crater two kilometres wide. The Gaelic name Beinn Nibheis is sometimes translated as “venomous mountain,” though it may refer to a Celtic god whose place of worship was on mountaintops. Nobody bothered confirming it was actually the tallest peak until the Ordnance Survey got round to it in 1847. In 1883 the Scottish Meteorological Society built an observatory on the summit and staffed it year-round for 21 years — three men at a time, snowed in for months, making hourly weather readings in conditions that regularly buried the building under five feet of snow. Their 1.5 million observations are still used in climate research today. One of the scientists there was inspired to invent the cloud chamber, which later helped us understand particle physics. In 1911 someone drove a Ford Model T to the top as a publicity stunt. Around 150,000 people climb it every year. On a clear day you can see Northern Ireland from the summit.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​