Glen Coe, one of the most tragic stories in the history of Scotland…

(This is all from memory, so I might get some of the details wrong. I read through and heard the story yesterday afternoon, and some of the details are already escaping me…I also have no Internet at the moment to check my facts. However, the gist of the story remains correct. Please feel free to correct me in comments.)

Scotland has never been exceedingly friendly with her neighbor to the south. Oh, as long as England was willing to recognize Scotland as a sovereign nation, they got along fine. It was only when England was asserting her will over her northern neighbors that things got ugly, as they did during the winter of 1692.

In the late 1600′s, William of Orange was King of England and Scotland, but the Jacobites in the highlands of Scotland chafed under his reign. They had only recently been unsuccessful in placing the Stuart line back on the throne in Scotland, and William was concerned that their Jacobite leanings would make for more uprisings, and none of the highland clans were as worrisome to William as were the MacDonalds of Glen Coe. Clan chief Iain MacDonald was as fiery a Scot as was born in Glen Coe, and being Catholic, he didn’t like the Protestant William of Orange.

Eventually, the government issued a decree that any highland clan chief who swore an oath of allegiance to William of Orange would be assured a measure of self-government in their daily dealings. Many clan chiefs signed the oath. MacDonald of Glen Coe was one of the last. As a last measure of defiance, he waited until the very last day, only making his way out of the Glen to Ballachulish on the absolutely last day of the decree, only to find that he actually needed to go up to Inverary to sign. At Inverary, Iain MacDonald found that the local magistrate was away visiting relatives in the south. He was told that he had to go to Fort William to sign the decree. (Fort William, or “an Ghearasdan”, as the Gaelic speakers refer to it, is approximately a half-hour drive through the lovely highlands of Scotland from Glen Coe, and only about 20 from Ballachulish. Iain MacDonald did not have the luxury of driving 60 miles per hour, and his journey was made longer by his circuitous route.) When he arrived at Fort William, he signed the decree, and made his way back to Glen Coe, assured that his signature would guarantee his family’s safety, though it was approximately a week late.

John Dalrymple, Master of Stair, and William of Orange’s secretary of state, hated the highland clans, and most Scots with a passion. He determined that he would not accept Iain MacDonald’s signature and filled out an order sending a contingent of soldiers (mostly from the Campbell clan) to Glen Coe with orders to quarter with the MacDonald’s there.

The Campbells and the MacDonald’s had long stolen cattle from one another, and were as close to enemies of one another as any clans really got. Clans frequently stole cattle from one another, and raided one another’s food stores. It was common practice, though no one usually got hurt. However, the feud between the MacDonalds and the Campbells was an old one, and they distrusted each other immensely.

Soon after Iain’s arrival home to Glen Coe, the Campbell soldiers showed up. Iain did not trust them, but 2 things constrained him from turning the soldiers away:

1. Iain MacDonald had signed the decree, and meant to honor it. He didn’t know if these soldiers were there as sort of a tax on his people that he had not been informed about or what, but he was determined to not be the cause of a break in the decree.
2. The Highland Way is to offer any sojourner food and a dram of whisky. This rule of hospitality was common in all highland clans, and it was this rule that the Campbells invoked upon their arrival.

No matter what their distrust, the MacDonalds welcomed their highland brothers into their homes, quartering the soldiers throughout the settlement of the glen. The mountain passes into the Glen Coe settlement were pretty well snowed in, so the Campbells were stuck in the Glen whether they wanted to be there or not. However, accounts relate that the soldiers and families of the glen made the best of it. No matter what the differences in the past, their common ancestry and practices took over and they were soon jesting and arguing about methods for brewing and distilling uisge beatha (water of life…a.k.a. whisky), and what breeds of cattle were the hardiest. They sang and told stories around the fire at night. They drank, and they renewed the bond of brotherhood between highlander and highlander.

John Dalrymple had plans for those soldiers, however. They were there to gain the trust of MacDonald. When the passes were clear enough to get a messenger to Glen Coe, Master John sent his orders to the commanding officer there.

The orders were simple: Kill everyone in Glen Coe, leaving no man woman or child alive. Do not bother the King with prisoners.

Only 38 men, including Iain MacDonald, were killed that day. Whether some of the soldiers refused to carry out thier grisly orders, or the Glen Coe natives just knew too many ways out of the glen, there were those who survived. The fact remains that many of the men DID carry out their orders; after wintering with the MacDonalds and receiving the cup of fellowship from their hands, and the warm bread and meat from their hearths, they turned and slaughtered those to whom they had pledged friendship.

To this day, there is a distinct anti-Campbell feeling among many Scots. The Campbells also fought against their brothers at Culloden, I believe, where the Scottish armies were massacred by the English. While everyone is a member of the United Kingdom now, get a Scot who is interested in history to talk about Culloden or Glen Coe, and you’ll definitely hear a disparaging word or three against the Campbells, to this day.

Even Scots abroad have this feeling when they have never been a native Scot. My wife’s family is close to another family in town. When my wife (then my girlfriend) was telling this family about me before I had met them, she mentioned that I was Scottish in ancestry. One of the patriarchs of the family who we call “Pa” said, “He’s not a Campbell, is he?” He remembered Glen Coe. He remembered the massacre.

We went to Glen Coe today, and the majesty of the glen is tough to forget…as is what happened there in 1692. It is a symbol of why the Scots are now a part of the U.K. I believe, as do many, that the Scots could have remained a sovereign country had they banded together and fought with their legendary passion and spirit. I believe that by force of will, they could have turned back the English and remained free. But they did not band together. The clan way fragmented any force that could have opposed the English. The Campbells were not the only clan who were lured by the English’s promise of lands and power. Many clansmen refused to fight under a leader from an opposing clan. Unity was the one thing that their Clan System made difficult, and without a single charismatic leader, such as Bonnie Prince Charlie, Robert the Bruce, or William Wallace, the Scots fragmented into their smaller clans, and made the work of the English all that easier.

It’s easy for me to sit here in the highlands of Scotland and criticize what they could not do. The fact remains that the English murdered many Scots. This was not the end of English cruelty to the Scots, either. Before I return to the States, I’ll write of the Battle of Culloden Moor, and the beginning of the Highland Clearances. That is another of Scotland’s tragic stories.