Snow Patches In Scotland
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Long-lying snow patches in Scotland have been noted from at least the 18th century, with
snow patch A snow patch, is a geomorphological pattern of snow and firn accumulation which lies on the surface for a longer time than other seasonal snow cover. Snow patches are known by a wide range of synonymous terms including snowpatches, snow beds, snow ...
es on
Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( ; , ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William. The mount ...
being observed well into summer and autumn. Indeed, the summit observatory, which operated from 1883 to 1904, reported that snow survived on the north-east cliffs through more years than it vanished. More recently, additional and methodical field study on the subject has been carried out by others, most notably by ecologist Dr Adam Watson. Most of this work concentrated on the mountains of north-east Scotland (in particular, the
Cairngorms The Cairngorms () are a mountain range in the eastern Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain Cairn Gorm. The Cairngorms became part of Scotland's second national parks of Scotland, national park (the Cairn ...
), but more recent observations by him and others has shed light on various locations throughout Scotland where long-lying snow persists. The available information systematically gathered by observers over the last 50 years or so, and greatly increased since the 1990s, has built up a level of knowledge that points to Scotland's snow patches being now amongst the best documented in the world.


General locations

There are many locations on the Scottish mountains where snow lies regularly into July, August and even September, but the two main areas where snow virtually always lies longer than anywhere else are the Cairngorms and the Lochaber mountains. These areas contain all of Scotland's mountains in excess of , including
Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( ; , ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William. The mount ...
. In some years snow can persist all summer, in some locations lasting through to the next winter. In 2015 some 73 patches were still present in late November at a time when the next winter's snows had started accumulating. The last time so many patches had survived all year was 1994. Other locations where snow has been known to survive: *
Creag Meagaidh Creag Meagaidh () is a mountain on the northern side of Glen Spean in the Highlands of Scotland. It is a complex mountain, made up of a flat summit plateau, with five ridges spreading out from it, overlooking five deep corries; it is most f ...
hills, survived in 1994 and 2015 *
Glen Affric Glen Affric () is a glen south-west of the village of Cannich in the Highland region of Scotland, some west of Loch Ness. The River Affric runs along its length, passing through Loch Affric and Loch Beinn a' Mheadhoin. A minor public road reac ...
/
Strathfarrar Glen Strathfarrar () is a glen in the Highland region of Scotland, near Loch Ness. The Glen is part of the Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme, with a dam at Loch Monar and a 9 km tunnel carrying water to an underground power station ...
hills, usually melts mid/late August but survivals have been noted on Sgurr na Lapaich,
An Riabhachan An Riabhachan is a Scottish mountain in the Skye and Lochalsh district of the Highland council area. It is situated 35 kilometres east of Kyle of Lochalsh standing in an isolated position at the western end of Loch Mullardoch, ten kilometre ...
and
Toll Creagach Toll Creagach (1,054 m) is a mountain in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. It lies between Glen Affric in the south and Loch Mullardoch in Inverness-shire. A domed shape mountain with corries on its slopes, it is usually climbed from the Af ...
as recently as 2015. *
Ben Wyvis Ben Wyvis () is a mountain in Easter Ross, in the northern Highlands of Scotland. It lies north-west of Dingwall, in the council area of Highland, and the county of Ross and Cromarty. Ben Wyvis is a large winding and undulating ridge r ...
, normally melts July/August, though survival has been noted (A Watson) * Grey Corries, normally survives until July/August, has survived at least once on
Stob Coire Easain Stob Coire Easain is a Scottish Munro mountain which reaches a height of 1115 metres (3658 feet), situated 18 kilometres east of Fort William. It stands on the western side of Loch Treig, along with its "twin", the Munro Stob a' Choire Mhe ...
(A Watson) and in 2015 on Stob Coire an Laoigh. *
Ben Alder Ben Alder () is the highest mountain in the remote area of the Scottish Highlands between Loch Ericht and Glen Spean. It rises to , making it the 25th highest Munro. The vast summit plateau is home of one of Britain's highest bodies of standing ...
range. Snow has survived at Geal-Charn on multiple occasions, most recently in 2015. Starting in 2009, and for 120 months consecutively, someone has been able to find snow for skiing somewhere in Scotland.


The Cairngorms

As well as containing five of the highest mountains in the United Kingdom, the Cairngorms is the range where snow persists longest, and in more locations, than anywhere else in the UK.
Ben Macdui Ben Macdui (, meaning "MacDuff's mountain") is the second-highest Mountains and hills of Scotland, mountain in Scotland and all of the British Isles, after Ben Nevis, and the highest of the Cairngorm Mountains. The summit is above sea level an ...
,
Cairn Gorm Cairn Gorm () is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is part of the Cairngorms range and wider Grampian Mountains. With a summit elevation of Height above sea level, above sea level, Cairn Gorm is classed as a Munro and is the sixt ...
and
Braeriach Braeriach or Brae Riach (, 'the brindled upland') is the third-highest mountain in Scotland and all of the British Isles, after Ben Nevis and Ben Macdui, rising above sea level. It is in the Scottish Highlands and is the highest point in t ...
all contain long-lying patches that have been observed for many years. On Ben Macdui, snow has been known to persist at a few locations from one winter to the next, but the location where more survivals have been noted than any other is , close to the Garbh Uisge Beag, which drains into Loch Avon. This patch sits at an altitude of . Lying at the north-eastern shoulder of
Cairn Gorm Cairn Gorm () is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is part of the Cairngorms range and wider Grampian Mountains. With a summit elevation of Height above sea level, above sea level, Cairn Gorm is classed as a Munro and is the sixt ...
i
Ciste Mhearad
This hollow contains a patch which, hitherto, was known to persist through many years, but has done so only once (in 2015) since 2000.Royal Meteorological Society "Weather" September 2016, vol. 71; Cameron et al Observations in 2007 and 2008 revealed that September was the month when final melting occurred for this patch. It sits at an altitude of and is located at approximately . Braeriach's Garbh Choire Mòr is the place which contains Britain's most persistent snow beds. Snow has been absent from this corrie just nine times in the last century, four of them in the last decade: 1933, 1959, 1996, 2003, 2006, 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Sitting at an altitude of about , these patches are located around 7.0605,-3.7495 the two most long-lasting patches are known as "the Pinnacles" and "the Sphinx" after the rock climbs lying above them. It has been claimed that Garbh Choire Mòr (as well as Coire an Lochain in the northern corries) may have contained a glacier as recently as the 19th century. In 2024, the Sphinx snow patch completely disappeared for the fourth year in succession. Since 1700, this patch has disappeared in 1933, 1959, 1996, 2003, 2006, 2017, 2018, and from 2021 to 2024. In 1994, the Cairngorms and surrounding mountains of north-east Scotland had 55 surviving patches, an exceptional number.


Ben Nevis range

As well as containing Scotland's highest mountain (
Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( ; , ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William. The mount ...
),
Aonach Mòr Aonach Mòr is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is located about northeast of Ben Nevis on the south side of Glen Spean, near Fort William, Scotland, Fort William. The mountain has a summit elevation of and is classified as a Munro. T ...
,
Aonach Beag Aonach Beag is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is located about 3 km east of Ben Nevis on the north side of Glen Nevis, near the town of Fort William. Apart from Ben Nevis, Aonach Beag is the highest peak in the British Isle ...
and
Càrn Mòr Dearg is the ninth-highest mountain in Scotland and the British Isles, with a height of . It stands a short distance northeast of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain, to which it is linked by the Càrn Mòr Dearg arête (commonly abbreviated t ...
make up the other three mountains in excess of in this area. As already noted, Ben Nevis has long been known to hold snow late into the year. However, historical reports from the 19th century and early 20th century of snow being ever present on the mountain are virtually impossible to substantiate, so must remain speculative. Nevertheless, what is certainly true is that snow often persists from one winter to the next. Analysis of Ben Nevis's snow is not as comprehensive as that of the Cairngorms, but recent observations show that Ben Nevis has been snow-free only once since 2006 (in 2017). The largest patch, at Observatory Gully, sits at an altitude of around . The slightly lower patch at Point 5 gully has also been known to survive from one winter to the next. Aonach Mòr has a corrie known to hold snow from one year to the next: Coire an Lochain. One of these patches, sitting behind a
protalus rampart A protalus rampart (or pronival rampart) is a depositional landform of periglacial origin. It forms as rock debris falls onto a steep snow slope from a cliff above and slides down the snow surface to come to a rest at the foot of the slope. Over a ...
, sometimes survives longer than the patch slightly higher up against the tall cliffs. Below the cliffs of the north-east ridge on Aonach Beag there is a relatively little known snow-patch which, despite its low altitude (approximately ), has been Scotland's largest at the time of the arrival of the lasting new winter snows of 2007 and 2008.Royal Meteorological Society "Weather" May 2008 vol. 63, no. 5; Adam Watson, David Duncan, Iain Cameron & John Pottie This patch does not appear in known literature on the subject and this suggests that it is very much under-recorded, which may be because it cannot readily be seen, even from the top of Aonach Mòr or Aonach Beag.


See also

* Corrie * Newman's Lady-fern – a snow-tolerant species
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to Scotland. * Icy Rock-moss – a species found in
Cairngorms National Park Cairngorms National Park () is a national park in northeast Scotland, established in 2003. It was the second of National parks of Scotland, two national parks established by the Scottish Parliament, after Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National ...
, where it's typically found on rocks in burns fed by snow patches. *
Younger Dryas The Younger Dryas (YD, Greenland Stadial GS-1) was a period in Earth's geologic history that occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years Before Present (BP). It is primarily known for the sudden or "abrupt" cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, when the ...


References


External links



Video interview with Dr Adam Watson about Cairngorm snow-patches
Scottish mountain snow melting
Speculative BBC feature discussing snow-patch melt and how it may affect mosses, liverworts and birds in the Scottish hills
Cairngorms Skiing, Feith Buidhe
Exploration then ski-ing of a large remaining snow patch at the Feith Buidhe slabs, probably August 1993
Tower Gully, Ben Nevis
Video of Tower Gully being skied on 1 July 1994, showing the phenomenal accumulations of snow that year
flickr archive
Various years' images, as contributed by several people (Dr Adam Watson, Iain Cameron, www.winterhighland.info)
Seeking the Sphinx – Scotland's Vanishing Snow Patches
UKC article by Iain Cameron {{DEFAULTSORT:Snow Patches In Scotland Environment of Scotland Glaciology Mountains and hills of Scotland
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
Weather events in Scotland