Also on the map ofGrampian Mountains
Ben Cruachan
- Easiest route
- 2.2 km+685 m · about 1.5 h · T3
- Prominence
- 881 m2,889 ft
- Isolation
- 20 km
- Tonight
- -3°CCloudy · Wind 7 km/h SE
Ben Cruachan is a 1,127 m (3,698 ft) mountain in the Grampian Mountains, Scotland, United Kingdom.
All facts
- Elevation
- 1,127 m · 3,698 ft
- Nearest higher peak
- Ben Lui (1,130 m)
- Range
- Grampian Mountains
- Region
- Scotland, United Kingdom
- Coordinates
- 56.4265° N, 5.1315° W
How to get to the top of Ben Cruachan
2 mapped walking routes from where a car can get you, with distance and climb from the terrain model.
Easiest route: from Road end, 1.6 km SE of Ben Cruachan
- Distance
- 2.2 kmone way
- Climb
- +685 m(2,247 ft up)
- Time up
- about 1.5 h
- Difficulty
- T3Demanding: exposed spots, some easy scrambling
Routes © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the ODbL. Climb from the terrain model. Trails change and maps miss things: check conditions locally.
Ben Cruachan 3D map
Drag to orbit · click, then scroll to zoom (or Ctrl/⌘ + scroll) · One finger scrolls the page · two fingers orbit and zoom · 7.6 × 7.6 km
Ben Cruachan terrain and contours
50 m contours from the Copernicus GLO-30 terrain model. The route drawn is the easiest mapped one. Click two points on the map to draw your own cross-section.Tap two points on the map to draw your own cross-section.
West → east through the summit
Ben Cruachan weather
Tonight · Cloudy · -3°C (27°F) · Wind 7 km/h SE
Ben Cruachan forecast for the summit, about 1,127 m. Summit vs base: the Base line is for about 420 m.
- Tonight-3°–7 km/h SEBase 2°
- Today-3°3°39.2 mm38 km/h WBase 2 / 7°
- Sun0°2°7.4 mm42 km/h WBase 4 / 7°
- Mon-1°2°23.8 mm26 km/h SEBase 4 / 6°
- Tue1°4°14.9 mm33 km/h SWBase 5 / 8°
- Wed1°4°1.3 mm18 km/h WBase 6 / 8°
- Thu3°4°1.1 mm17 km/h SEBase 7 / 9°
- Fri3°4°8.6 mm17 km/h SEBase 8 / 8°
- Sat0°4°7.1 mm15 km/h SEBase 4 / 8°
- Sun0°0°4.9 mm13 km/h NWBase 4 / 5°
Forecast data: MET Norway, CC BY 4.0; daily low and high, precipitation total and strongest wind from the hourly data, model run Oct 24, 01:17 UTC.
Camping & parking near Ben Cruachan
Campsites, parking, trailheads and mountain huts mapped in OpenStreetMap around Ben Cruachan, nearest first, by straight-line distance. Check access, fees and permits locally.
Nearest parking
2.9 km SW
Nearest caravan site
Loch Awe Holiday Park
Nearest hut
Cadderlie
All mapped places 7
| Place | Distance |
|---|---|
| Parking | 2.9 km SW |
| Parking | 3.0 km SSW |
| Parking | 3.2 km S |
| Loch Awe Holiday ParkCaravan site | 3.8 km WSW |
| CadderlieHut | 7.0 km NNW |
| Narrachan BothyHut | 7.3 km NNE |
| Airds Bay CLCaravan site | 7.8 km W |
How steep is the route to Ben Cruachan?
The easiest mapped route, 2.2 km from 420 m to 1,127 m. Steepest stretch: 42°.
- 0–15°1.1 km
- 15–30°1.0 km
- 30–45°0.1 km
Grades are averaged between profile points about 30 m apart, so short steeper steps don’t show.
Land cover
ESA WorldCover 10 m classification of the same area.
Snow & ice means glaciers and year-round snow (a yearly average), not today’s snow cover.
Nearby summits
Named peaks within 3.8 km, measured from the Ben Cruachan summit.
Summit list 8
- 1Stob Dearg1,104 m 0.8 km WNW
- 2Meall Cuanail918 m 0.9 km S
- 3Drochard Ghlas1,009 m 1.4 km ENE
- 4Meall nan Each906 m 1.6 km WNW
- 5Stob Diamh998 m 2.5 km ENE
- 6Stob Garbh980 m 2.6 km E
- 7Sron An Isean966 m 3.0 km ENE
- 8Beinn a` Bhuiridh897 m 3.2 km SE
Wildlife seen nearby
Sightings of the most-seen species on iNaturalist (research grade) within 3.8 km; 77 species recorded in all.
Sightings per species 6
- Yellow Saxifrage4
- Common selfheal3
- Pontic Rhododendron3
- Northern firmoss3
- Common Butterwort3
- Hairy Kidney-wort3
Where Ben Cruachan sits
- Range
- Grampian Mountains22
- Region
- Scotland153United Kingdom371Europe2,143
Ranked in 1
Nearby places
Loch AweLake · 36 m↑16 km SSW
Glen Shira↑18 km SSE
Ben LuiPeak · 1,130 m↑20 km E
Glen Orchy↑20 km ENE
Glen Etive↑21 km NNE
More in the Grampian Mountains 6
Ben Cruachan downloads: topographic map, heightmap, STL 3D model and DEM
Free files made in your browser from this page's terrain data. No sign-up; credit the sources below.
Print & wall
3D printing & 3D apps
Free to use with credit: see the data sources
How accurate is this?
15 m low This 3D map reads 1,112 m at the summit; the official height is 1,127 m.
Why: a 30 m terrain model averages each cell, so a sharp summit gets rounded off. The 90 m model misses by 36 m.
| Source | Summit | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Official height (Wikidata) | 1,127 m | — |
| Copernicus GLO-30 (used on this page) | 1,112 m | -15 m |
| Copernicus GLO-90 | 1,091 m | -36 m |
Data sources
- Terrain
- Produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved. The European Union, ESA, DLR and Airbus incur no liability for any use of this data and do not endorse this service.
- Imagery
- Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026 (scene 2026-07-15)
- Land cover
- © ESA WorldCover project 2021 / Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021) processed by ESA WorldCover consortium
- Facts
- Wikidata (CC0)
- Routes, Camping & parking
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
- Summits
- © OpenStreetMap contributors, via Overture Maps Foundation (ODbL)
- Wildlife
- iNaturalist community observations, counts only
- Accuracy comparison, Panorama
- Includes Copernicus WorldDEM-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved. The European Union, ESA, DLR and Airbus incur no liability for any use of this data and do not endorse this service.
- Forecast
- Weather forecast from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0)
- Sources
- Wikidata · OpenStreetMap · GeoNames · Wikipedia