BEN’S BED: Fenstanton man Alan Oliver was among a group of 36 hotel employees who clambered up Britain’s highest mountain ... to build a hotel bedroom.

The stunt, which took place last Thursday (June 27), took eight-and-a-half hours to complete and saw the team from Travelodge create their ‘room with a view’ more than 1,300 metres above sea level at the top of Ben Nevis.

The challenge, which was led by Travelodge’s managing director for property Paul Harvey, was aiming to raise £50,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support – to date it has raised more than £60,000.

Mr Oliver, a business development manager for Travelodge, said: “The weather was atrocious, the climate on the summit was sub-arctic and we basically spent most of our time on Ben Nevis shrouded in cloud. The terrain is very steep and exhausting. It took us fours hours to ascend Ben Nevis, two hours to construct the room and then two hours and 30 minutes to descend.

“It was certainly worth the pain, as the views from the highest hotel room in Britain were breathtaking.

“The team are absolutely thrilled to have accomplished the mission and it is a great feeling of achievement, as not many people can say they have carried and built a hotel room on top of Britain’s highest mountain.”

Strangely enough it was not the first time that a hotel room had been created at the top of Ben Nevis – during 1894 to 1916 the Temperance hotel provided accommodation for climbers during the summer months.