Home

bens

Bens is the plural form of ben, a term used in Scotland to denote a mountain or peak. The word derives from Scottish Gaelic beinn, beinn meaning mountain, hill, or summit, and is commonly Anglicized as ben. In English-language geography and hiking literature, bens appears in the names of individual mountains beginning with Ben, such as Ben Nevis, Ben Lomond, and Ben More. The plural bens is used to refer collectively to multiple mountains that share the term in their names, or to a group of nearby peaks in a region. The construction is typically part of proper nouns and is capitalized as a name; outside proper names it is rarely used.

The concept reflects the strong Gaelic influence on Scottish toponymy. In cultural use, bens are part of

the
Scottish
Highlands
and
other
mountainous
areas,
and
the
term
is
familiar
to
hikers,
geographers,
and
readers
of
travel
literature.
Beinn
is
the
original
Gaelic
form;
in
modern
Gaelic
orthography,
beinn
is
a
common
spelling,
while
bens
is
the
English
pluralization.
See
also
Beinn;
Ben
Nevis;
List
of
mountains
of
Scotland.