I do hope this selection of my photographs will
give you a sense of the grandeur of this truly
magnificent mountain and its surrounding
scenery.
At 4,409 ft above sea level, Ben Nevis is the
highest mountain in the British Isles and as
such attracts an estimated 100,000 ascents a
year. So unlike many of Scotland's hills, you
are sure not to be alone here!
However, it has not always been easy for the
average person to get to the vicinity of Ben
Nevis as is illustrated in the poignant letter
below, from a gentleman living in the south of
Scotland in the early 1930s, in response to his
reading of “On Foot in the Highlands” by Ernest
A. Baker which was first published in 1932.
Dear Sir,
I hope you will excuse an anonymous reader of
your book, “On Foot in the Highlands,” sending
you a few lines to thank you for the pleasure it
has given him and for a new resolve it has
awakened actually to see the Highlands, at least
in part, before he leaves this mortal scene!
I am a married man of 43, and have two young
boys; so, though I often turned my thoughts to
the Highlands, I always thought that I should
never be able to afford to go there, for I have
only a very small salary.
After reading your book, however, I was so
filled with the desire to go up the Highland
Railway, and, particularly, to climb Ben Nevis
by the Allt a’ Mhuillin, and cross over the
Aonachs, that I broached the subject to my wife,
and we have adopted a “Ten Year Plan” of saving
weekly a matter of one shilling with the set
purpose of having a joint holiday, a family
holiday, there, and have opened an account
accordingly.
I am a good hill-walker and a healthy subject,
so perhaps at 53 I may be able to fulfill the
ambition for which, again, I thank you! And my
boys by that time will be able to come with me.
Yours very truly,
“A Hillman”
I often wonder if his scheme was successful
despite the onslaught of the Second World War
and like to think that he was able to achieve
his goal just as I have been fortunate enough
to.
I do hope you enjoy the photographs.
