It was the beginning of February, 1692 and two companies of approximately 120 men from the Campbell Earl of Argyll’s Regiment of Foot who were commanded by Robert Campbell of Glenlyon arrived at the home of the Glencoe MacDonalds, as friends, supposedly seeking shelter due to the fact that the fort was full.
The MacDonalds, honouring the Highland hospitality code, gave them shelter, and for 12 days they lived together, ate together, drank together, played music together, with neither the clan nor the majority of the soldiers knowing what lay ahead – as the commander awaited his orders from John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair. Dalrymple wanted to annihilate the MacDonald clan to make them an example of the power of the largely English throne over the Scottish Highlanders.
Dalrymple’s orders were explicit: the MacDonalds were to be slaughtered – “cut off root and branch” – “to put all to the sword under seventy”.
As the clan slept, a blizzard howled through Glen Coe, giving whiteout conditions…
…as the soldiers then set about systematically killing everyone they could; killing as many of the people as they could who had been their friends for the better part of two weeks…
38 lay dead the next morning, including the chief, MacIain. Many more escaped into the hills, some finding shelter before the elements could kill them, some, including MacIain’s elderly wife, dying on the mountainside.
~~~ and so, on February 12nd, 2020, we set out to explore Glencoe – an area that has hardly changed since that fateful day all those years ago…
