Last Friday we set off towards Scotland’s west coast. Our destination was Strontian, a village in Lochaber, west of Loch Linnhe. But our trip took us through the rugged and stunning scenery of Glencoe.
At this time of year, most of the peaks are snow covered, adding to their splendour. The highest peak is Bidean nam Bian. Its summit, also known as the “Peak of the Mountains”, reaches an elevation of 1,150 metres (3,773 feet). Close by is one of the most iconic mountains in Scotland, Buachaille Etive Mòr, situated at the entrance to Glencoe. It consists of two main peaks of 1022 metres and 956 metres.
We stopped a couple of times to take in the views before finally parking-up at the Glencoe visitor centre. Even here, with the benefit of some shelter from the cold wind, we didn’t dwell outdoors for too long. After a coffee and quick walk with our two dogs, we set off again on the road to our destination.
Our route took us past the village of Glencoe. This sleepy place (at least it is this time of year) has a memorial to a dark event that took place in winter 1692. The massacre of Glencoe resulted in the deaths of some 38 people at the hands of government troops, with more dying of exposure after fleeing into the mountains. The victims were members of the MacDonald clan who had been late in pledging their allegiance to the new monarchs, William and Mary. We visited the memorial a few years ago on a previous trip to Glencoe.
Scotland is blessed with its many castles, abbeys, towers, old houses, monuments and historic battlefields. Wherever we have travelled in our fabulous country, we have found history on our doorstep. Some of this history dates back thousands of years, such as the standing stones at Calanais and Machrie Moor. Other history is more recent.
Indeed, my own region, the borders, is home to many a ruined abbey, to houses such as Abbotsford (the home of Sir Walter Scott), and to a number of monuments, including the William Wallace statute overlooking the Tweed valley near Dryburgh.
Wallace himself has been a Scottish folk hero for centuries; and there are some 20 monuments to him throughout Scotland. The most famous is the impressive National Wallace Monument at Abbey Craig, just outside Stirling. It is well worth a visit.
Wallace’s victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 was a significant turning point in Scottish resistance to the English military occupation of Scotland which had followed the death of Scotland’s own King Alexander III. Wallace’s achievement brought an end to the occupation; and subsequent events culminated in Robert the Bruce securing Scotland’s independence at Bannockburn in 1314, defeating Edward II’s army.
Fast forward a few centuries, and the period from the late 1600s until the mid 1700s witnessed the rise and fall of the Jacobites. These were supporters of the exiled James Stuart III and his descendants, including the young pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Jacobite movement was strong in Scotland before and after the union between England and Scotland, but it came to a violent end on the Culloden battlefield near Inverness in 1746. There is an excellent chronology of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s life at the Glenfinnan Visitor Centre. However, our planned visit to the Culloden Visitor Centre was cancelled when we found that they didn’t allow dogs.
In response to the Jacobite uprisings, the English built three forts in the Great Glen. Fort William evolved into the town we know today, and at the southern end of Loch Ness, we have Fort Augustus, another town popular with tourists in the summer. But further north, overlooking the Moray Firth is Fort George. This remains a military barracks today, although it is scheduled for eventual decommissioning. It is open to visitors and worth a visit.
At Glencoe there is another memorial marking another violent event. The massacre at Glencoe took place n 1692, when soldiers who had enjoyed the hospitality of the MacDonald clan for 11 days, rose in the night and murdered 33 men, two women and two children . Many others perished in the snow blizzards as they tried to escape.
Conflict in the highlands didn’t end with the Jacobite uprisings, another shameful event took place in the 1800s with what is now referred to as the Highland clearances. Thousands of families were evicted by rich landowners, and their houses burnt to make way for sheep. It took an Act of Parliament in 1886 to finally bring and end to this awful practice.
As I hope this short blog post shows, there is plenty of historical places to visit in Scotland. We have only started to scratch the surface.
From our base in Inverness we explored around the Cromaty firth and the Moray firth before heading south along the western side of Loch Ness to our final destination near Fort William. On the way, we took in the Loch Ness Centre for a very factual and visual presentation about the loch and its famous monster. Plausible reasons are given for many of the sightings and some of the most recent scientific findings. I was left feeling certain that there is no mysterious monster, not least because there simply isn’t a sufficiently large enough food chain in the loch to support a sizeable creature.
As you travel south past Urquhart Castle, the views don’t disappoint. If anything, the scenery around Fort William is even more dramatic; and good examples can be seen at Glenfinnan (famous for the viaduct that featured in the Harry Potter films) and Glencoe. But these both have important places in Scotland’s history.
At Glenfinnan on the shore of Loch Sheil stands the Jacobite memorial. This tower was built in memory of the Jacobite clans that rallied here for Bonnie Prince Charlie; and a chronological history of what followed can be found in the nearby Glenfinnan Visitor Centre.
Glencoe was the site of a much darker event. The memorial here is to the MacDonald clan who were massacred one wintery night in 1962, in what some historians have described as an early form of ethnic cleansing.
But aside from a bloody history, Glencoe is a picturesque village on the shore of Loch Leven. We walked its length on what eventually turned in to a sunny day. Like many places in this part of the Grampians, the population of Glencoe grows in the summer with hikers, climbers and others seeking outdoor pursuits. On the day of our visit, there were certainly more tourists in evidence than locals.
Both places are worth seeing. Indeed, the entire area around western highlands is a photographer’s delight. Sadly, the fully-booked ferries ruled out a planned trip to Mull or Skye (next time we will book our crossings in advance). Then of course you have Ben Nevis. We took to the foothills, and followed a well-used trail. But the day was growing long; we hadn’t prepared for a long hike, and our little Westie was getting tired, so we returned to our hotel for a well-earned drink.