Glencoe

Beautiful circular drive today in sunshine, starting from Oban. Lunch at Glencoe, up through the pass, where this picture was taken, and onto Rannoch Moor . Round through the beautiful Glen Orchy, stunning today with rushing river and falls, and back to Oban via tea at Inverawe Smokery.

Glencoe and Rannoch Moor never fail to move me, whatever the weather. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it is here the infamous Glencoe Massacre took place. In 1691, King William offered the Highland Clans pardon for siding with the Jacobite cause - returning James, exiled in France, to the throne. The Clan Chiefs were to sign an oath of allegiance before 1st January 1692, in front of a magistrate. The Chiefs asked James for permission to sign. He was convinced he was about to return victoriously to his throne, and dithered about telling them to sign. When it became obvious that this wasn't going to happen before the deadline, James sent word for the Chiefs to sign.

The Clan Chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe left it to the last minute to take the oath, and but for blizzards and unpredictable delays, he would have signed in time. He had to beg to be allowed to take the oath late, and this in fact happened.

Nevertheless, the government had ordered Campbell soldiers to go to Glencoe and await orders. For 12 days they stayed with the MacDonalds, who honoured Highland tradition and gave them hospitaility, neither the Argyll soldiers nor the MacDonalds knowing what lay ahead . Then the soldiers received their orders. At 5a.m. on 13th February 1692, the soldiers struck as the Clan slept. 38 people lay dead in their homes. It's thought that some soldiers warned their hosts in time, and many MacDonalds fled to the hills, another 40 women and children perishing in the blizzard on the mountainside as their homes blazed. The Clans were used to bloody warfare, but this occurred at a time when they did not consider they were at war, and under the Highland code of hospitality, and so it became known as a massacre.

Oh, cruel was the snow that sweeps Glen Coe
And covers the grave o' Donald
Oh, cruel was the foe that raped Glen Coe
And murdered the house of MacDonald

folksong