Ben Lawers

Ben Lawers is one of the highest mountains in the southern part of the Scottish Highlands. It lies to the north side of Loch Tay, and is the highest point of a long ridge that includes 7 Munros.

Ben Lawers was long thought to be over 4000 ft in height; accurate measurement in the 1870s showed it to be some 17 ft short of this figure. In 1878 a group of twenty men spent a day building a large cairn in the hope of bringing the summit above the "magic" figure. The cairn is now longer there; in any case the Ordnance Survey ignored it as an artificial structure that was not truly part of the hill.

Most of the south side of the Ben Lawers range is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, due to the abundance of rare alpine plants . The trust own a visitor centre located at the western end of the range, from where a much eroded-path leads to the summit. A slightly different path also leads from the centre, heading for the summit by way of the intermediate peak of Beinn Ghlas .

Alternative routes that avoid the erosion caused by the popularity of the two routes described above usually start by following Lawers Burn, which meet the A827 at the village of Lawers. Heading north from the burn allows the walker to climb the peaks to the northeast of Ben Lawers on the way. The most direct route from Lawers is to continue along the burn until Lochan nan Cat (Loch of the cat), then heading straight to the summit by way of the east ridge.