Ben Nevis — Chambers's Encyclopaedia

Ben Nevis, a mountain of Inverness-shire, 7 miles SE. of Fort William, by a new carriage-road opened in 1880. The loftiest summit in Great Britain, it has a height of 4406 feet, with a tremendous precipice of 1500 feet on the north-east side. Granite and gneiss form the base of the mountain, which above is composed of porphyry. Till a road to the top was made in 1883, the mountain was difficult of ascent. A meteorological observatory was erected on the summit in 1883, and daily observations have since been made and communicated by telegraph wire to the lower world. There is now beside it a shelter for travellers.