Organising a Charity Event
To make the process of gaining permissions and registering events on Ben Nevis as streamlined as possible the Nevis Landscape Partnership works on behalf of all the landowners to process registrations. Please check the schedule of events and read our guidance for charity event organisers prior to completing your registration form.
A fee to cover the administration costs will be levied for each event that is registered upon the hill. We also ask that a contribution to the Nevis Fund is made for each participant that is registered.
Why do we ask you to register charity events?
We ask that charity events are registered to:
- Enable fair and sustainable usage of Ben Nevis, which allows for proper consideration of the impacts (individual and cumulative) of events on the local community, tenant farmers, other path users, wildlife and the environment. Registration of events will allow land managers to better monitor these impacts and improve mitigation of them with the aim to protect and enhance the area.
- Protect the mountain. Much of Ben Nevis sits within a SSSI and as such care needs to be taken to care for and protect the qualifying habitat. Permission must be gained from NatureScot for a range of activities and events. We may need to inform you of areas to avoid for environmental sensitivity.
-
To ensure that events are being organised and run in a responsible manner that will take responsibility for their actions, respect other people and care for the environment.
- Help fund the maintenance and repair of the infrastructure (paths, bridges, boardwalks, stiles, waymarking, litter clearance, etc) needed to allow this activity to happen safely.
- Allow the maintenance of a publicly accessible annual schedule of events to help event organisers plan and avoid clashes and to spread out larger events over the course of the year.
- Avoid overflowing of car parks onto the Glen Nevis road.
The regulations for organised charity events.
The Scottish Charity Regulator, OSCR, asks that fundraising be completed in line with the The Code of Fundraising Practice.
This, in section 11.3.3 states that you must be able to show you have made reasonable attempts to get permission from land managers to make sure that you do not break the requirement to exercise access rights responsibly and that you must keep to the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC).
The National Access Forum has published Guidance for Outdoor Events in Scotland to support interpretation of the SOAC. Table 2 in this document lists circumstances in which land manager’s permission is likely to be required. Events that are timed (such as three peaks challenges) are considered to be included in this table.
Please note, failure to have permission in place may invalidate your event insurance.