Climbing Ben Nevis

 Yes I have climbed Ben Nevis in Scotland...........well sort of.  Let me explain.

We had to go to Scotland last November (2024) for a funeral.  The last couple of days we were in Scotland we went to Fort William to have a short break.  Neither of us had ever been before.  Despite it being the end of November we were quite lucky with the weather.  The scenery was gorgeous driving up there from the border area.  

The next day we drove to Ben Nevis (only a few minutes away) and as we were standing on that bridge a couple of young guys were coming back across the bridge.  It was before lunch time and they had climbed up Ben Nevis and come back down at that point.  They'd obviously started early.  

They showed us video's of the summit and it was covered in snow; so yes they had climbed it.  They were on the way to the Lake District and hoped to climb Skiddaw in the Lake District later that day.  They were also saying they had talked to a guy when they were coming down and he was going to camp up on the top of Ben Nevis that night.  Rather him than me; as it was forecast for rain and snow for the rest of the day.  Rain on the lower ground, snow on the higher.

After talking to those young guys I felt as though I had experienced the whole climbing the Ben Nevis thing without having to actually do it.  Mind you there was never, ever going to be a chance of us climbing up that!!!

Now on the way back down to Glasgow we stopped off at Oban and that was even lovelier than Fort William in my opinion.  Next time we are over, I think we'll do another road trip round Scotland, but not in November we were frozen the whole time we were there!!

If anyone is heading to Fort William we stayed in the Cruachen Hotel and it was super.  Walking distance to everything.  The rooms were comfy.  The breakfast was good and the price wasn't bad either.  We also ate in the bar onsite both nights.   Staff were really nice also.