Beinn Eighe

Beinn Eighe is a mountain massif in the Torridon area of Wester Ross, in Scotland's Northwest Highlands, south of Loch Maree, with its highest point, Ruadh-stac Mor, reaching 1,010 meters. Like its neighbors it stands on a foundation of ancient Lewisian gneiss overlaid by Precambrian Torridonian sandstone, but its summit ridge is capped by pale Cambrian quartzite, laid down around 540 million years ago as pure white sand under a warm tropical sea. That hard, brittle cap gives Beinn Eighe's peaks a distinctive light color that can be mistaken for snow, setting it apart from the darker sandstone summits around it.