Ben Alder () is the highest mountain in the remote area of the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

between

Loch Ericht Loch Ericht () is a freshwater loch on the border between the former Perthshire, now Perth and Kinross and the former Inverness-shire, now Highlands Council areas of Scotland. It has a north-east to south-west orientation. The village of Dalwh ...

and

Glen Spean The River Spean flows from Loch Laggan in a westerly direction to join the River Lochy at Gairlochy in the Great Glen in the West Highlands of Scotland. Major tributaries of the Spean include the left-bank Abhainn Ghuilbinn and River Treig, ...

. It rises to , making it the 25th highest

Munro A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...

. The vast summit plateau is home of one of Britain's highest bodies of standing water, Lochan a' Garbh Coire.

Climbing

Sitting 19 km from

Dalwhinnie Dalwhinnie ( ; "meeting place") is a small village in the Scottish Highlands. Dalwhinnie is located at the head of Glen Truim and the north-east end of Loch Ericht, on the western edge of the Cairngorms National Park. Location Dalwhinnie sits a ...

and 15 km from Corrour railway station, it is commonly climbed in a two-day expedition, usually taking in its lower neighbour, Beinn Bheoil. There are two bothies near the mountain: Culra Lodge (closed due to asbestos contamination) to the northeast and Ben Alder Cottage to the south, both potentially providing shelter for walkers in the area. Ben Alder Cottage is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a ghillie who hanged himself from the rafters.

The "Man with no Name"

A man's body was found near the top of Ben Alder in June 1996, at the edge of a cliff face, overlooking a lochan, his heart pierced by an old-fashioned lead ball bullet. All the labels had been cut from his clothing. Forms of identification such as credit cards were missing. He had a replica Remington .44, unsuitable slip-on shoes, three 1.5-litre bottles of water in his rucksack and £21 in cash. Although the police later ascertained that his clothing came mostly from French supermarkets, it was not until November 1997, following a cranio-facial reconstruction of the dead man's face, that a friend of the family wondered if the man might be Emmanuel Caillet, from south Paris, France. Last seen by his parents on 14 August 1995, it was established that Emmanuel had crossed the Channel the next day. He then sold his car for £350, less than its value. Two days later he stayed one night in the Stakis-Ingram Hotel,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, paying with his

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

card. His identity was duly confirmed. There were suggestions he might have been murdered because a witness claimed that he had been with another man at Corrour railway station, but forensic

evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...

points to suicide.

''Kidnapped''

Ben Alder is one of the locations featured in the novel '' Kidnapped'' by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

. The main characters David Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart are hosted by the

Scottish clan chief The Scottish Gaelic word means children. In early times, and possibly even today, Scottish clan members believed themselves to descend from a common ancestor, the founder of the clan, after whom the clan is named. The clan chief (''ceannard ci ...

Cluny MacPherson, fugitive after the Second Jacobite Rising, in one of his hiding places at Ben Alder. The part about Cluny MacPherson is based on a true story. He really did hide out for an astonishing nine years on the slopes of Ben Alder, in a hiding place called 'the Cage', before escaping to France.

Prince Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (31 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, making him the grandson of James VII and II, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, ...

briefly joined him there in early September 1746 whilst on the run after the failure of the Forty-Five.

Geodesy

Ben Alder was the origin (meridian) of the 6 inch and 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps of Inverness-shire.

References

Mentions ghost of Ben Alder Cottage
{{British hills Munros Marilyns of Scotland Mountains and hills of the Central Highlands Mountains and hills of Highland (council area) One-thousanders of Scotland

Climbing

The "Man with no Name"

''Kidnapped''

Geodesy

See also

References