Volunteers working on Ben Nevis were reportedly quite surprised to
discover a near complete piano lurking just 200 metres below the
summit of Britain's highest mountain...
You couldn't make it up, so here's the full story courtesy of the
John
Muir Trust which owns the summit area of the Ben. We blame Highland piano rustlers...
Piano on Ben Nevis Poses Musical Mystery
A musical mystery is surrounding Britain's highest mountain Ben
Nevis. And sleuths are trying to find out when the 'Sound of Music'
and perhaps 'Climb Every Mountain' rang out over the 4,418 ft high
peak.
For a piano has been dug up from one of the summit cairns on the
iconic mountain - creating a mystery over how it got there - who took
it there - and why?
A volunteer squad from the John Muir Trust who own the mountain
were busy removing cairns from the summit plateau when they came
across the piano - below.
"Our guys couldn't believe their eyes", said trust director Nigel
Hawkins. "At first they thought it was just the wooden casing - but
then they saw the whole cast iron frame complete with strings.
"The only thing that was missing was the keyboard - and that's
another mystery. Maybe it's hidden somewhere else on the mountain.
A McVities Wholemeal Biscuit wrapper dated best before 13/12/1986 was
found under the piano which gives us a clue as to when it was taken
there - but certainly not why?"
Volunteer group organiser Sandy Maxwell, of Glasgow, said: "We are
now trying to track down who took it there. We may even give them an
outstanding invoice for 20 years storage of a piano under a cairn on
Ben Nevis.
"We have a constant battle against litter being left on Britain's
biggest highest mountain - but this elevates being a litter lout sky
high into a completely different category.
"Our plan of breaking up the piano with a mattock and asking 20 to
30 members of the public to help carry the bits of the piano off the
mountain worked well.
"The discovery was made while our team was clearing unnecessary
cairns off the summit plateau as part of a plan to reduce more than
100 cairns to around 25. Four volunteers from the Jardine Lloyd
Thomson group of companies were helping with cairn removal as part of
their 'Making a Difference' charity initiative.
"They demolished three large and two smaller cairns and the piano
was found in one of the larger ones. We know cairns are often used to
harbour rubbish but we never expected to find something like this."
The spectacular find was made while the scourge of rubbish on
Britain's hills "Rob The Rubbish", Robin Kevan, a retired social
worker from Llanrytyd Wells in Mid-Wales was working with the
Lochaber Area Conservation team lower down on the mountain collecting
no less than 20 bin bags of rubbish.
Jamie @ www.trekkingbritain.com
