A bronze statue is in Fort William town center, commemorating when a Model T was driven up the tallest peak in the UK in a publicity stunt by Scotland’s first Ford dealer

In 1911 a Ford Model T became the first car to climb to the summit of Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, in a daring publicity stunt by Henry Alexander, Scotland’s first dealer of the American car company Ford.

In a bid to assure customers the Ford brand was of higher superiority to hand-crafted British cars, a Model T went from the foot of Ben Nevis to the peak, and back down. Not on a road. Roughing it, the hard way

Alexander had left the town driving from sea level the five miles to the summit of Ben Nevis which stands at 4,406 feet. The route crosses burns (streams), traverses bogs and ascends the steep trackless rocky hillside. Then as now there is no road or navigable trail.

This feat of man and machine took 5 days in ascent and one working day in descent.

The statue was commissioned by the Powderhall Foundry in Edinburgh, the statue weighs a whopping three tonnes and depicts Mr Alexander Jr behind the wheel of a Ford Model T.

 This event was celebrated and publicised by the Ford Motor Company for decades, becoming part of the “Mountain Culture” of Ben Nevis.

 

A 1911 film (available by googling “Motoring over Ben Nevis”) shows the car rattling down the rocky hillside and then becoming stuck in a peat hag beside the half way lochan. Its progress continues when sticks of dynamite are used to demolish the peaty impasse!

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/1479172/bronze-ford-model-t-unveiled-in-fort-william/

https://www.markstoddart.com/model_t_car.html