The Boys' Brigade Mountaineering Club

Ben Macdui / Beinn Mac Duibh is the 2nd highest peak in the British Isles and the highest in the Cairngorms. At one time, it was unclear whether Ben Macdui or Ben Nevis was the highest, but the Ordnance Survey decided this beyond dispute in 1847, by accurately surveying both peaks and deciding in favour of the latter. The summit is a broad and featureless stony plateau with a steep drop to the Lairig Ghru (Forbidding Pass) on its western side. The easiest ascent is from the Coire Cas (Steep Corrie) Car Park by the bottom station of the Cairngorm Mountain ski resort's funicular railway.

See its entries on Walkhighlands or Wikipedia or view it from above on Google Earth.

Ben is an anglicisation of the Gaelic word Beinn, which means Mountain. Macdui is an anglicisation of Mac Duibh. The most likely explanation of Mac Duibh, is that it comes from name of the family, descended from Donchadd II (Duncan II), Earl of Fife, who acquired vast tracts of land in the area in the 12th century. The anglicised form of Mac Duibh would be MacDuff and it was an earlier member of this family who gained fame as Macduff, the Thane of Fife, in Shakespeare's Macbeth. So, Ben Macdui could be taken to mean MacDuff's Mountain.

An alternative, but unlikely, theory is that Mac Duibh might be a corruption of the antecedent of Muc Dhubh which, in Modern Gaelic, means Black Pig. Perhaps the shape and colour of the mountain was in some way reminiscent of such an animal. If this were the case, Ben Macdui could be translated as Black Pig Mountain.