16/06/08 - Wheelchair Found on the Summit of Ben Nevis

A John Muir Trust volunteer work party has found a wheelchair on the summit of Ben Nevis. The work party of seven volunteers were dismantling cairns and clearing litter last Saturday when they discovered a rusting wheelchair hidden under a cairn close to the summit. The mysterious find has been removed from the mountain and disposed of along with several bags of rubbish.

“The wheelchair was probably hidden under the cairn so that the people who carried it up the mountain were spared the effort of taking it away,” commented Sandy Maxwell, Conservation Activities Co-ordinator for the John Muir Trust. “We have no idea why a courtesy transport chair has ended up at the top of Britain’s highest mountain and can only guess that it was some sort of stunt.”

The John Muir Trust organises summer work parties on Ben Nevis to remove the 140 cairns that now dot the summit plateau. The cairns have been built up by visitors over the years and are seen as a safety hazard by the Mountain Rescue as they can mislead walkers in poor visibility who are not following compass bearings. The John Muir Trust is removing all but a single line of cairns on the path above 4,000 ft, leading straight to the summit.

The cairns are also focus points for rubbish and other bizarre finds. In May 2006, an entire piano was found buried under a cairn on the summit of Ben Nevis along with a McVities Wholemeal Biscuit wrapper dated best before 13/12/1986. It was later discovered that the piano was taken up the 4,418 ft mountain by a group of removal men from Dundee, in the summer of 1986.

“We have a constant battle against litter being left on Ben Nevis,” commented Sandy Maxwell. “I urge walkers to respect Britain's highest mountain by carrying everything they take up back down again.”