Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WEST HIGHLANDS
This area extends from the bleak blanket-bog of the Moor of Rannoch to the west coast
beyond Glen Coe and Fort William, and includes the southern reaches of the Great Glen.
The scenery is grand throughout, with high and wild mountains dominating the glens.
Great expanses of moor alternate with lochs and patches of commercial forest. Fort Willi-
am, at the inner end of Loch Linnhe, is the only sizable town in the area.
Since 2007 the region has been promoted as
Lochaber Geopark
(
www.lochabergeopark.org.uk
)
, an area of outstanding geology and scenery.
Glen Coe
Scotland's most famous glen is also one of the grandest and, in bad weather, the grimmest.
The approach to the glen from the east, watched over by the rocky pyramid of
Buachaille
Etive Mor
- the Great Shepherd of Etive - leads over the Pass of Glencoe and into the nar-
row upper valley. The southern side is dominated by three massive, brooding spurs, known
as the
Three Sisters
, while the northern side is enclosed by the continuous steep wall of the
knife-edged Aonach Eagach ridge. The main road threads its lonely way through the
middle of all this mountain grandeur, past deep gorges and crashing waterfalls, to the more
pastoral lower reaches of the glen around Loch Achtriochtan and Glencoe village.
Glencoe was written into the history books in 1692 when the resident MacDonalds were
murdered by Campbell soldiers in what became known as the Glencoe Massacre.
THE GLENCOE MASSACRE
Glen Coe - Gleann Comhann in Gaelic - is sometimes (wrongly) said to mean 'the glen of weeping', a romantic
mistranslation that gained popularity in the wake of the brutal murders that took place here in 1692 (the true origin
of the name is pre-Gaelic, its meaning lost in the mists of time).
Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which the Catholic King James VII/II (VII of Scotland, II of Eng-
land) was replaced on the British throne by the Protestant King William II/III, supporters of the exiled James -
known as Jacobites, most of them Highlanders - rose up against William in a series of battles. In an attempt to
quash Jacobite loyalties, King William offered the Highland clans an amnesty on the condition that all clan chiefs
took an oath of loyalty to him before 1 January 1692.
MacIain, the elderly chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe, had long been a thorn in the side of the authorities. Not
only was he late in setting out to fulfil the king's demand, but he mistakenly went first to Fort William before trav-
