Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
View of the Ben Nevis Observatory and precipice from a distance. Titled in Beveridge publication as 'Coire Leas and Summit of Ben Nevis'.
IN 877
Description View of the Ben Nevis Observatory and precipice from a distance. Titled in Beveridge publication as 'Coire Leas and Summit of Ben Nevis'.
Date 13/9/1883
Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Catalogue Number IN 877
Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images
Copies SC 746125
Scope and Content Coire Leas and the Summit of Ben Nevis, Highland A meteorological observatory, designed to give warning of the approach of south-westerly storms from the Atlantic, was established in 1883 on the summit of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. The observatory, which was subsequently enlarged by the addition of a 10m-high viewing tower, was photographed in 1883 by Erskine Beveridge while it was under construction. Ben Nevis, which rises 1,343m above sea level, does not look as if it were the highest mountain in Scotland as the summit does not rise to a sharp peak, but is rounded. Although the north-east face (left) is the most extensive cliff-face in Great Britain, a 8km path from Achintee in Glen Nevis was constructed in 1883 to provide a safe and easily accessible route for the Highland pack-ponies that carried supplies, fuel, building materials and equipment to the observatory which was being built on the summit. Between 1883 and 1904, meteorologists, a staff superintendent and two assistants, manned the observatory, investigating the vertical gradients of pressure, temperature and humidity in conjunction with the low level station at Achintore. They took hourly readings using external thermometers, gauges and other instruments which were frequently covered in solid ice, buried in snow or simply blown away in hurricane force gales which could reach speeds of up to 240 kmph. The observatory was connected by telegraph cable to Fort William, enabling weather reports and other data to be transmitted. It was abandoned in 1904. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/250863
Attribution: © Courtesy of HES. (Erskine Beveridge Collection).
Licence Type: Legacy Agreement/Bespoke
You may: copy, display, store and make derivative works [eg documents] solely for licensed personal use at home or solely for licensed educational institution use by staff and students on a secure intranet.
Under these conditions: Display Attribution, No Commercial Use or Sale, No Public Distribution [eg by hand, email, web]
