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Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Ben Nevis "gravestone"???


Postby stuart mclovin » Mon Sep 07, 2015 1:43 pm

Anyone ever seen this or know what it is;



http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2015/08/21/gravestone-found-on-ben-nevis/

BRITAIN’S highest peak is at the centre of a spooky mystery after a strange figure emerged from the fog and showed two climbers a discarded gravestone.
Brothers James and Alex Robbie lived on 4,409ft Ben Nevis for a week earlier this month to raise money for charity,

The pair were camping near the ruined observatory at the summit of the mountain on Friday, August 7 when they had what they described as “by far the most spooky element of our stay”.

The stranger turned over a stone which appeared to be a headstone which included the words “Wilson 1810”. He then disappeared into the fog.

James and Alex described the experience as “disturbing”.

But one old mountain hand advised against jumping to ghostly conclusions, saying it could be a hoax and that there was a tradition of leaving mementos on the hill.


Alex Robbie, 35, a technician for Volkwagen, said he and brother James, 27, who is a carpenter in the Royal Engineers British army regiment, were both shown the stone by the mystery stranger

He said: “We only had about two days left on our trip.

“This guy came up quite early, about 10 or 11am. He described the observatory and he said “I’ll show you something.” and he went to look for the stone.

“We could tell he knew where it was but could see he was playing for time.

“He actively used the word “gravestone”.
“There was this amazing inscription on it. He let us take a couple of photographs and then he disappeared into the mist, down the hill.”

The brothers, who are raising cash for children’s charity The Archie Foundation, also wrote on their Ben Nevis Big Sleepover Facebook page:

“Quite disturbing stuff, and I spent the final two nights wondering if some reprobate would come forth from his tomb, dressed in the garments of the grave, and visit us in our hut.”
A former Ben Nevis mountain rescue worker and tourist guide, who asked not to be named, was sceptical.

“I’ve never heard of this,” he said. “If it was a gravestone, surely you would put date of birth and death.

“I think there was a guy called Wilson who worked on the observatory there so it’s maybe a doodle he did. There were any number of harebrained stunts on Ben Nevis.”
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby Sgurr » Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:01 pm

1810 predates the observatory, which wasn't even planned until 1877, and built in 1883, by which time, anyone born in 1810 would be 73. I don't rule out climbing Ben Nevis now I am 76, and some Victorians were amazing walkers, but it seems unlikely.
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby Sgurr » Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:29 pm

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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby Sgurr » Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:44 pm

Someone who worked on the Irish canal which was finished at the beginning of the nineteenth century could have come across to work on Neptune's Staircase which was completed in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Or the whole thing could be a wind-up. Would like to see the actual stone.
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby basscadet » Mon Sep 07, 2015 3:23 pm

Oh yes the caledonian canal is attributed to the following people:

Resident engineer (1804-7): John Telford
Resident engineer (1804-19): Matthew Davidson
Resident engineer (1807-23): Alexander Easton
Resident engineer (1819-29, 1867-77): James Davidson
Resident engineer (1829-67): George May
Contractors: John Simpson and John Cargill, John Simpson and John Wilson, and Thomas Rhodes
Iron castings: Butterly Ironworks
Ironwork: William Hazeldine, Plas Kynaston

So both a Wilson and a Rhodes are contractors for the canal.. :crazy:
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby basscadet » Mon Sep 07, 2015 4:16 pm

Further research has turned up the fact that John Wilson married Thomas Rhodes daughter Mary , she died young, so Wilson remarried to Rhodes neice Barbara later on..

James Rhodes died in Invergarry in 1865..

John Wilson died in 1831 whilst working on a canal in Birmingham.. Was actually the person who completed Telford's Menai bridge :shock:

So anyway, neither of these men seemed to be dying in 1810, but they both had masonry skills, and were both in the area. they may of made a memorial of a trip up the ben themselves, especially if mountaineering was very uncommon - must of felt like an amazing achievement if they managed up..

Its all very interesting :D
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby stuart mclovin » Tue Sep 08, 2015 11:34 am

wow, possibly solved faster than an episode of Scooby Doo! :clap:

i don't doubt people were climbing the Ben back then. Man sees hill, man climbs hill. Would love to see the actual stone myself though.
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby Sgurr » Tue Sep 08, 2015 2:19 pm

Have just be re-reading Ian Mitchell's "The Mountains Before the Mountaineers" where he sets out to look for likely first ascents and he says that "One of the more interesting accounts of the ascent of Nevis was an early one, or possibly a series of ascents (1787) by The Rev Alex Fraser, minister of Kilmallie, the parish that contains Ben Nevis...(up) the present tourist route." By the time John Keats ascended it in 1818 it was common for people to hire a guide from Fort William and pay them (by 1827) seven or eight shillings...a huge sum then.

It is an excellent book if you are interested in that sort of thing.
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Re: Ben Nevis stone - Wilson 1810

Postby Chris McC » Tue Jun 28, 2022 3:39 pm

My 4 greats grandfather was John Wilson, a master stonemason fro Cumberland and long-standing regular contractor for Thomas Telford until he died in 1831. He took over as contractor for the west end of the Caledonian Canal - Corpach to Laggan for several years. He would have been in Fort William in about 1810. A good photo of the stone and inscription one day would be great ! Might be a good candidate for the culprit!
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby MRG1 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:09 am

Sorry to be "that guy" but was that "ghostly figure" figure wearing tweed, Burberry and hobnailed boots?
Or was he wearing modern clothes?
If so, not very spooky / ghostly was it.
The very final paragraph gives a link to the two guys' just giving page.
Cool story all the same.
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby MRG1 » Wed Jun 29, 2022 9:19 pm

MRG1 wrote:Sorry to be "that guy" but was that "ghostly figure" figure wearing tweed, Burberry and hobnailed boots?
Or was he wearing modern clothes?
If so, not very spooky / ghostly was it.
The very final paragraph gives a link to the two guys' just giving page.
Cool story all the same.


Oh my god, I just reread my last and I must have been in a right hump when I wrote that, I meant for it to sound funny.
Sorry.
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby jupe1407 » Thu Jun 30, 2022 8:24 am

These two lads are a couple of mates of mine who spent a week in the summit shelter for charity a few years back. They found the stone during one of many boredom induced wanders around the summit (the weather was dire most of the week). I think the wording in the article is a combination of them drumming up a bit of interest and some artistic licence on the part of the publication :lol:
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby Giant Stoneater » Thu Jun 30, 2022 2:52 pm

While on the subject of gravestones here is a interesting one in the cemetery at Boddin Point just outside Montrose.
Born 1859 Died 1840

P4190136.JPG
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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby Sgurr » Thu Jun 30, 2022 9:32 pm

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Re: Ben Nevis "gravestone"???

Postby Sunset tripper » Thu Jun 30, 2022 10:17 pm

jupe1407 wrote:These two lads are a couple of mates of mine who spent a week in the summit shelter for charity a few years back.


Haha - don't want to reignite that thread! :silent:
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