IT IS Scotland's most famous mountain, and a massive tourist attraction with at least 160,000 visitors a year.

However, the main route on to Ben Nevis is facing ruin because of a funding crisis. The group which has been managing the UK’s highest peak has run out of cash and will stop its practical work by the end of March.

As a result, the already- crumbling lower section of the path from Glen Nevis taken by the vast majority of those who climb the 4409ft mountain will disintegrate further, causing serious damage to the environment – and the local economy.

“It’s in danger of collapse. Fort William and district will lose out massively, as visitors will be deterred from climbing the mountain, and the mountain will lose out massively as those that do will find new ways up, which will cause even more erosion,” said Liz Wilshaw of the Nevis Partnership. “It’s a double whammy.”

The partnership is making a second bid for Lottery funding so it can keep going, but even if that is successful, work is unlikely to start on the lower section of the tourist track until 2014.

Of the 160,000 visitors recorded as using the two main Ben Nevis paths, the vast majority use the tourist track. It is thronged with charity walkers in summer, with many attempting the Three Peaks challenge to climb Snowdon, Scafell and Ben Nevis – the highest in Wales, England and Scotland – in a single trip.

The lower section of the tourist track gives access not just to the summit but to Half-Way Lochan at 1840ft and other areas on the north and west of the hill. The upper section, from the lochan to the summit, has been rebuilt in the past three years with lottery, Scottish Natural Heritage and other grants.

However, maintenance of the lower path, built 100 years ago, has been patchy at best in recent times. While in places the pitched stone surface and drains are intact, there are already many sections where stones have been washed away and the underlying sandy soil is exposed.

“The condition of the path is very poor,” said Ms Wilshaw. “There are places that are giving us great concern, where the edges have disappeared. There are some very uncomfortable boulders to walk on so people are walking around them and creating new path lines.”

The partnership is a charity that brings in all the groups with an interest in the Ben – the John Muir Trust, which owns the summit area; the Mountaineering Council of Scotland; Alcan, which owns much of the rest of the mountain and surrounding land, and others.

It organises work and raises grant funding for projects such as the rebuilding of the upper section of the path.

Much of its funding is from Highland Council. A combination of a cut in that funding over the past few years, and failure to secure other cash, left the partnership looking at ceasing its operation, so in February it submitted a bid for around £2 million funding to the Heri-tage Lottery Fund’s Landscape Partnership scheme.

Geoff Robson, head of environment and development at Highland Council, said although the council does not have any duty to maintain paths on private land, in previous years he had a budget of £100,000 for path development. That has now been scrapped, meaning the council could not take on the job of restoring the path.

“If funds were available we would be able to do that sort of work,” he said. “But roads, homes for the elderly, schools take precedence.”