Glencoe

A few years ago my Dad had given me a few books by John Preeble that each covered a different aspect of Scottish history. One was on Glencoe and the 1692 massacre of the members of Clan MacDonald by the Campbells. Along with images of the harsh and beautiful landscape, the book had brought the idea of going to see Glencoe to the forefront of my mind.

I took a bus from Fort William (or An Gearsedan as my Dad insists on calling it by its Gaelic name) that conveniently had a stop at the Glencoe Visitors Centre. This Visitors Centre is predominantly there to support the work of the Nature Preserve that now encompasses much of Glencoe, but also had information about the history and the massacre, including a short video informing visitors of this tragic past.

The weather on my visit wasn’t ideal in the morning and, as many hikes suggested that good weather was required to ensure safety, I chose to do a hike to one of the nearby hills. This gave me a good view of the towns of Glencoe and Ballachulish and a view of the Sea to the west, and also a look down to the east of the Glencoe valley. Although it was listed as a three-hour hike, I was able to complete it in a bit under two hours. This left the better part of the afternoon to look for other ways to fill the time before my 1745 bus back to Fort William.

As a result I decided to wander into the Glen to see more. The park has great walking paths that made walking into the park easy. I was able to follow these paths to where I could do a short walk to Signal Rock—a rock that was once thought to be where the Macdonalds would light a flame to alert those farther in the valley of danger, but more recently was felt to have got this name from a derivation of the worship of the sun from the pagan ancestors of the Scots. These site was no longer one that could provide a vista of the valley—the park signs made certain to note this in order to ward off frustration of people who choose to walk to the rock—but was surrounded by tall trees which were gifted from Lord Strathcona but had grown to distract from the site over time. My wanders went as far as Loch Achtriochtan Before I needed to head back to the Vistors centre to catch my return bus to Fort William.