Ben Nevis shelter trashed as public urged to respect the mountain
Beer cans, mouldy food and cigarette packets were among the rubbish left behind by visitors.
An emergency shelter at the summit of Ben Nevis was found strewn with litter, including empty beer cans and mouldy food.
Iain Cameron, a Scottish author and snow-patch researcher, shared a photograph of the hut cluttered with rubbish with his followers on social media.
Mr Cameron wrote: “There is an emergency shelter on top of Ben Nevis, invaluable for injured or exhausted walkers to get out of the weather.
“This is how it looked yesterday.
“Beer cans, abandoned rucksack, cigarette packets, mouldy food… I despair sometimes.”
The picture, which showed discarded beer cans, cigarette packets, an abandoned rucksack and food left to decay inside the shelter, was taken by climber Eugene Owens.
He said he took he took a bin bag to the summit to clear the piles of rubbish but “didn't even make a dent in it.”
Andrew Baxter, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said it was “very disappointing” that the shelter had been left in such a condition.
“People ought to know better,” he said.
“It makes it a less pleasant place for everyone.
“I would urge all visitors to respect the mountain and take your waste home.”
Mr Baxter said incidents such as this were contributing to the need for councils to invest in countryside rangers.
“We shouldn’t have to spend money educating people to take their rubbish home with them or having to clear up their mess,” he said. “It should just be common sense.”
The number of rangers in Scotland’s popular locations for visitors has fallen dramatically over the years.
In 2024, sixty ranger jobs through NatureScot were axed across beauty spots including Isle of Skye, North Coast 500 and Loch Lomond, places that draw tens of thousands of visitors annually.
The ranger service was launched in 2021 to deal with issues surrounding high levels of motorhomes, wild camping, dangerous campfires and outdoor toileting as the Covid pandemic drove high numbers of people into the countryside.
The nature agency said the reduction in numbers came from “difficult decisions” that had been taken surrounding budgets.
Scotland’s network of bothies, which are unstaffed and have no waste management on site, also face similar rubbish and litter problems with a rise in visitor numbers to them over the years.
Ben Nevis is Scotland’s tallest mountain. Thousands of people climb it every year.
One of the popular movements that attracts people to the mountain includes the National Three Peaks Challenge, which involves climbing Ben Nevis, Snowdon (3,560ft), and Scafell Pike (3,209 ft). Figures show some 30,000 people take part in the challenge each year.
The Princess of Wales completed scaling the three mountains in June this year to raise funds for a cancer charity and “explore life beyond diagnosis”. She carried out the challenge solo, supported on route by Mountain Rescue, and was greeted at the end by the Prince of Wales and her children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and her parents Carole and Michael Middleton and brother James Middleton.
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