A survey of the vegetation of Ben Nevis - Scottish Natural Heritage

Scottish Natural Heritage Commissioned Report No. 090 (ROAME No. F02LD01)
The summits of Aonach Mór and Aonach Beag are also rather small in area, but there is
Rhacomitrium lanuginosum heath which shows an interesting variant dominated by
R. canescens in one place where there is heavy wind deposition of soil particles. Where
seepage from the calcareous schists influences the upper slopes there are good examples
of calcicolous communities characteristic of the Breadalbane range, such as dwarf swards
with carpets of Silene acaulis, Carex saxatilis marshes and open flushes with Juncus biglumis.
Most of the widespread montane calcicoles of Breadalbane occur within the site, and the
total flora is rich. Some of the rare species are scattered, and they include Saxifraga cernua,
S. cespitosa (both growing with S. rivularis in one place), Myosotis alpestris, Cystopteris
montana, Salix reticulata and Dryas octopetala. The bryophyte flora is rich, including northern
Atlantic species, and both calcifuge and calcicole elements in the high montane group.
The vegetation of the Ben Nevis SSSI was surveyed by the Nature Conservancy Council’s Upland Survey
Team in 1984 and 1987 (Nature Conservancy Council 1987). A vegetation map was produced as a
series of transparent overlays to black-and-white vertical aerial photogrpahs at a nominal scale of 1:25,000.
No site description was ever written, but the description from the Nature Conservation Review (Ratcliffe 1977)
was included in the file of maps and photographs. The Upland Survey team, working before the National
Vegetation Classification (NVC) was produced, used the simpler classification devised by Birks & Ratcliffe
(1980), though mires were mapped using the NVC during the fieldwork in 1987. 58 types of vegetation
were recorded in that survey. These could be equated with up to 92 NVC communities or sub-communities.
In 1984 David Horsfield wrote up some notes on the vegetation of the Ben Nevis SSSI and made a brief
assessment of the then proposed Aonach Mór Ski Area (information held in files at Scottish Natural Heritage
(SNH) office in Fort William).
Lamb (1987) included a brief account of the vegetation of the Ben Nevis SSSI in the report from her survey
of the flora (but not vegetation) and fauna of this site.
The vegetation of the easternmost part of the site was not mapped by the Nature Conservancy Council
Upland Vegetation Survey team in the 1980s. It was mapped in 1994 by Hope (1994) using the Birks &
Ratcliffe classification at the scale of 1:25,000.
The vegetation of three blocks of woodland within the site was surveyed by the Nature Conservancy Council
Scottish Field Unit in July-August 1985. These woods are Polldubh (NN 145694), Allt a’ Mhuilinn
(NN 140754) and Steall Ruin, Glen Nevis (NN 173690). The findings of these surveys and others in
woods throughout Lochaber District in 1985 were presented by MacKintosh (1990). Copies of the record
cards with detailed information for individual woods are held by Scottish Natural Heritage at Fort William.
In these surveys the woodland vegetation was mapped at the scale of 1:10,000 and classified to
sub-community level using the NVC.
In 1989 Rothero (1990, 1991) surveyed the bryophyte-dominated vegetation in late snow-beds on the
eastern side of Aonach Mór and on Ben Nevis. This was part of a larger study of bryophyte-dominated
snow-beds in the Scottish Highlands.
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