Massacre at Glen Coe
This Massacre, that is probably the most infamous and shameful episode in Scottish history, has led to ill feeling between two Scottish clans for hundreds of years.
Glen Coe is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and it’s really sad to think of what happened here. If you are ever fortunate enough to be driving through Glen Coe, pull over in a quiet spot get out of the car, have a look around you and just listen. The haunting views are hypnotising. Listening to the silence that strange silence, it seemed as though it is whispering and recounting the events of past centuries.
The shameful atrocity was not, as first believed, a clan feud between the Campbells and MacDonalds, it was in fact a government operation. The events leading up to the massacre are important to understand the massacre itself. King James VII of Scotland, and II of England, a Stuart was deposed by Parliament in 1689 and William of Orange was installed as Monarch, which would lead to the 1692 massacre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cPitxtk4m0
THE GHOSTS OF CULLODEN
Bonnie Prince Charlie led the 1745 Jacobite Uprising in a valiant attempt to reinstate the exiled Stuarts and his father’s right to the thrones of both Scotland and England. The word ‘Jacobite’ is derived from the Latin ‘Jacobus’ meaning James.
His standard was raised on the spot where Glenfinnan Monument now stands and where the young Prince, had rallied 500 supporters from Clan MacDonald and 1000 from Clan Cameron. His father was “The Old Pretender” James Stuart. He had seen two of his previous attempts to seize the throne end in failure. The first of which was in 1689 and some of the surviving MacDonalds from that uprising would become victims of the infamous Glencoe Massacre in 1692.
Charlie was also to fail. He invaded England as far as Derby, but had to retreat due to lack of support from England and France. His last attempt was at the Battle of Culloden where he was defeated by government forces and Charlie became a fugitive.
Listen to the haunting ballad below about the ghosts of the battle fields of Culloden where on the 16th of April in 1746, 2000 brave Scotsmen lay dead or dying. https://youtu.be/OvSh0qjKtkQ
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