Ben Alder

Ben Alder (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Eallair) is the highest mountain in the remote area of the Scottish Highlands between Loch Ericht and Glen Spean. It rises to 1,148 metres (3,766 ft), making it the 25th highest Munro. The vast summit plateau is home of one of Britain's highest bodies of standing water, Lochan a' Garbh Coire. Ben Alder's north-east corrie exposes a narrow band of metamorphosed Kinlochlaggan Limestone alongside a dark epidiorite sill, forming a small pale cliff and a run of ledges, runnels and sinkholes around 1,030 m. The contrast between calcium-rich "sugar" limestone and the igneous rock, set within surrounding schists and quartzites, creates a tight mosaic of substrates and microhabitats. This outcrop supports one of Britain's richest montane limestone lichen floras, with more than 100 species, including many nationally rare species, recorded in roughly a hectare, and is regarded as second only to Ben Lawers.