Glencoe is simply breathtaking. No other place does scenery like Glencoe in Scotland, and that’s saying something: everywhere in Scotland knows how to do scenery. It’s eerie, in a way, but if you’re hiring a motorhome in Scotland and driving through it, the scenery seems to speak of a thousand years of history.
Below, we’ll tell you the history of Glencoe that makes the area one of the best to visit in Scotland.
Early Settlements and Geography
Glencoe sits in the western Highlands, near the well-known Fort William, in Lochaber. It’s one of the biggest geographical regions with some of Scotland’s most dramatic landscapes. You could spend weeks walking around it.
Glencoe has the Gaelic name Gleann Comhann. Sometimes, you’ll hear it called by its poetic name, the “Glen of Weeping.” Some say that’s in reference to the tragic history of the Glencoe Massacre, and others, the River Coe that runs through the area.
What you’ll first notice about the Glen is its sheer size. It has been shaped by volcanic activity for thousands of years before glaciers carved it out during the ice age. And many (many, many) more years of rainfall after that have continued to etch their mark in the valley. What’s left are dramatic ridges and peaks that make it as famous as it is. Two of the most famous peaks are Buachaille Etive Mòr and the Three Sisters, but we guarantee you’ll be left in awe of all of them.
The history of the earliest settlements varies, but archaeological finds suggest that the first inhabitants lived during the Neolithic period. The earliest records of a more ‘modern’ settlement, if you want to call it that, date back to maps created by General William Roy between 1747 and 1755.
They showed seven named settlements, including the famous Achnacon, Inverigan, and Achtriochtan. That said, archaeologists’ work uncovered artifacts dated before that, such as a 1690 coin.
The most famous settlement was Clan MacDonald of Glencoe, a small branch of the powerful Clan Donald. They’re a clan that came to shape the very history of the Glen.
The Clan Donald and Clan Politics
It would be impossible to do an article about the history of Glencoe and not give the Clan Donald its own section.
Clan Donald was one of the largest clans in Scotland. For centuries, they owned the largest areas of land in Scotland, and their ancient chiefs were known as the “Lord of the Isles.”
After the Glorious Revolution overthrew King James VII of Scotland, clans in the western Highlands, such as Clan Donald, didn’t see it as glorious at all. They were loyal followers of King James VII, and anyone who stayed loyal to him became known as Jacobites, the Latin form of James. The Macdonalds, a smaller clan that was part of Clan Donald, were passionate Jacobites.
After the failed Jacobite rising of 1689 (a movement launched to restore the exiled Catholic King James VII & II to the throne), the Scottish government offered a pardon to highland chiefs who took an oath of allegiance to King William by January 1, 1692, and Chief Alasdair MacIain of the Macdonald clan agreed. However, delayed by snow and confusion, he was slightly late to the January 1st deadline but was still assured all was well.
That slight delay would end up creating one of the deadliest betrayals in the history of the Highlands.
The Glencoe Massacre
This is the main history of Glencoe. The one people have heard about, but not everyone actually knows in detail.
Chief MacIain’s accidental delay in swearing allegiance was, in fact, not OK with the Scottish government. After signing allegiance on the 6th of January, 1692, 5 days after the deadline, MacIan returned to Glencoe, where a government force of about 120 men, led by Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, had been staying as guests of the MacDonalds for nearly two weeks.
Under government orders, they turned on their hosts, killing 38 men, women, and children in their homes, leading to the name “The Glencoe Massacre“. The numbers would have been higher had it not been for other Macdonalds fleeing into the mountains in the middle of a blizzard.
It was not the bloodiest of histories of Scotland, but the betrayal of Highland hospitality makes it one of the most well-known Scottish stories.
Now, Glencoe is enjoyed by over 2 million tourists per year, according to the National Trust. The history of the massacre is told through the visitor centre and guided tours, and the outstanding natural beauty of the area will forever tell the tale of how geography created something so stunning, even if there’s a deadly history lying under the surface.