Càrn Eige

Càrn Eighe stands in the remote Northwest Highlands, north of the Great Glen. It is the highest point in the region and the twelfth-highest in the British Isles. The mountain rises between Glen Affric and Loch Mullardoch, forming part of a massif with its twin peak, Mam Sodhail. Its summit is pyramid-shaped, where three ridges meet, and it overlooks a glacial corrie that drops half a kilometre to Corrie Lochan. The slopes are largely treeless, covered instead in grasses, mosses, and snow in parts of the year. The mountain has drawn climbers since at least the 19th century. Colonel Winzer of the Ordnance Survey reached the summit in 1848 and found signs of earlier visits. In 1891, Sir Hugh Munro included it in his famous tables of Scottish peaks over 3,000 feet. Since then, the full set of Munros has been completed more than 6,000 times. The massif contains five Munros and ten minor summits, known as Munro Tops. A walker reaches the summit via long ridges or steeper routes from Glen Affric or Loch Mullardoch. The summit holds an Ordnance Survey trig point and a cairn. To the south, Loch Affric is bordered by wooded slopes with Scots pine, oak, birch, and beech. These woods shelter endemic birds such as the crested tit and the Scottish crossbill. The view from the top stretches across the highlands, taking in Loch Mullardoch and distant peaks like Sgurr na Lapaich.