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 →Murder Ballad Monday→Cruel is the snow – the massacre of Glencoe – part two
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Cruel is the snow – the massacre of Glencoe – part two

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Glencoe, Scotland.

On Monday I set the scene and told some of the backstory of the events leading up to the massacre. Today I tell the story of the massacre itself, I will also name the victims, the culprits and look at the aftermath. In a sense however, the real victims of this event were the Highlanders themselves. The removal of King James from the throne was a difficult moment for the Highlanders. Their centuries old way of life was under serious threat. The massacre of Glencoe represents the opening shots of what became a concerted campaign to rid the highlands of its people. The legacy of this can be seen all the across the world, in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, as the highlanders left Scotland to make way for sheep and cattle.

     
                         

Sir John Dalrymple
Sir John Dalrymple was an ambitious politician. Dalrymple had been the senior Law figure in Scotland and was a supporter of King William becoming King of Scotland. As a reward for his support, the King made Dalrymple his Secretaty of State. This meant that Dalrymple was the head of Government in Scotland. It is impossible to tell when the idea for the massacre was first suggested, however it is clear that Dalrymple had the means and the methods to ensure it happened. The chances are that it probably began in London, when Dalrymple was down to attend court and to see King William. Dalrymple was one of these Scotsmen who saw the Highlanders and their way of life as a stain on the Kingdom of Scotland. He believed they were holding Scotland back and was genuinely disappointed when all the clans signed the pledge to the new King. When news reached Dalrymple that MacIain of Glencoe had signed and taken the pledge but had done so late he spotted an opportunity. He convinced the King that MacIain and has community were none other than a bunch of cattle stealing thieves and should be dealt with as such. Dalrymple convinced the King to sign the orders and the fate of the MacIains was sealed. What is interesting about this is the King denied he knew what was intended for the MacIains of Glencoe and yet what is clear from the documents that he signed is that he not only signed his name but also countersigned the documents as well.
The orders given to the troops to “put all to the sword.”

Copy of order to Capt. Campbell by Maj. Duncanson
You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the McDonalds of Glenco, and put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special care that the old Fox and his sons doe upon no account escape your hands, you are to secure all the avenues that no man escape. This you are to putt in execution at fyve of the clock precisely; and by that time, or very shortly after it, I’ll strive to be att you with a stronger party: if I doe not come to you att fyve, you are not to tarry for me, but to fall on. This is by the Kings speciall command, for the good & safety of the Country, that these miscreants be cutt off root and branch. See that this be putt in execution without feud or favour, else you may expect to be dealt with as one not true to King nor Government, nor a man fitt to carry Commissione in the Kings service. Expecting you will not faill in the fulfilling hereof, as you love your selfe, I subscribe these with my hand  att Balicholis  Feb: 12, 1692
(signed) R. Duncanson
For their Majesties service
To Capt. Robert Campbell
of Glenlyon
 
                                                        Alastair McDonald sings The massacre of Glencoe.
The ballad, The massacre of Glencoe is a modern song written in 1963 by Jim Maclean and intended for the Scottish folk singer Alastair McDonald. It accurately describes how the massacre unfolded and we will use it to tell the story of the massacre.
The first verse states:

They came in the night when the men were asleep

That band of Argyles, through snow soft and deep.

Like murdering foxes, among helpless sheep

They slaughtered the house o’ MacDonald 

Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, the same Campbell whose lands were raided by the MacIains and their cousins from Glencarry after the Battle of Dunkeld, was the Captain of this bunch of assassins. As per the rules of hospitality Campbell was put up in MacIain’s own house. It is not clear if Robert Campbell knew what was intended to happen to the MacIains when the soldiers first arrived. Such was the nature of the plot that Campbell had written orders to go to Glencoe to collect taxes and could legitimately show those orders to MacIain. On 12 February 1692 Captain Drummond arrived carrying the new orders from Major Duncanson shown above. That night the senior officers played cards with MacIain himself and they all went to bed. During the night the attack started.

Verse two says:

They came through the blizzard, we offered them heat

A roof ower their heads, dry shoes for their feet.

We wined them and dined them, they ate of our meat

And slept m the house O’ MacDonald 

It is believed that the first clansman to be killed was Duncan Rankin. He was shot trying to escape across the river. As the orders above show the soldiers were ordered not to let anyone escape and it is believed that further detachments of troops were being sent to prevent anyone escaping through the Devil’s staircase towards Kinlochleven.

Verse three and four complete the tale:

They came from Fort William with murder mind

The Campbell’s had orders, King William had signed

Put all to the sword, these words underlined

And leave none alive called MacDonald

Some died in their beds at the hands of the foe

Some fled in the night, and were lost in the snow.

Some lived to accuse hlm, that struck the first blow

But gone was the house of MacDonald

It is believed that nearly 200 people lived around Glencoe at the time of the massacre. Some 38 members of the community were killed with another 40 or so believed to have perished in the freezing Winter weather. This left nearly 120 or so who managed to survive. It is clear now that members of the Earl of Argyll’s regiment warned the MacIains that something bad was heading their way. Indeed it is known that two senior officers, Lt’s Farquhar and Kennedy broke their swords and refused to take part in the massacre. The two other detachments of troops that should have prevented others escaping over to Kinlochleven never made it to their position. It has been speculated that wasn’t simply the weather that prevented them but rather a desire to have nothing to do with this heinous crime.

In the aftermath the Scots parliament demanded an inquiry which the King reluctantly agreed to. The charge of ‘murder under trust’ was levelled against the perpetrators, which was regarded in Scots Law as being much worse than ordinary murder. It became clear very quickly that the King had put himself in a very difficult position. The inquiry politically cleared the King but his standing in Scotland was seriously damaged. The King sought to protect himself by putting all the blame on Sir Joh Dalrymple who was forced to resign his office. Compensation was paid to the victims and the Parliament declared the deaths of the MacIains to be murder under trust.

It is perhaps inevitable that this story has become defined as the MacDonalds slaughtered by the Campbells and where there is a degree of truth in this claim it is very far from the whole truth. The massacre of Glencoe was a politically motivated state sponsored crime. An abuse of power by the King’s chief minister and an appalling naive act by a King who knew nothing of the highlands of Scotland.

In 1746 the last pitched battle on the United Kingdom took place at Culloden. It ultimate defeat for the Jacobite cause and signalled the complete smashing of the Highland way of life. The language, the clothes, the traditions and eventually the people themselves were banned and centuries of traditions were ripped up. The massacre of Glencoe represented the beginning of this sad, bitter process. A massacre that echoed across the world as the descendants of the MacIains of Glencoe left for the New World across the ocean.

                                            A short film showing the Glencoe visitor centre.

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Comments

Cruel is the snow – the massacre of Glencoe – part two — 1 Comment

  1. Tom, this is fascinating stuff. Thanks for the exploration of these events. I’m curious still, however, about the song itself. In your previous post, you wrote:

    “Inevitably this story has also become weaved into the national myth of Scotland as another example of victimhood against the English. However in many ways this story is almost exclusively an internal Scottish story, another marker in the split between modernity and medieval, between the ‘progressive Lowlands’ against the ‘backwards Highlands.'”

    What do you think Maclean was up to relative to these options in telling the story? Where does it fit within his other work, and what’s your sense of its popular reception in Scotland over the years? Why do you think audiences resonate with it? It seems far less a rallying cry for nationalism, than a lament for (a) the victims of a heinous crime, and (more pertinently, although not more importantly) (b) a lost way of life.

    The events happened before the Sir Walter Scott era of romanticized Scottishness, but the song comes well after. I’m interested in how the dynamics of nostalgia, mourning, and loss play out here, and am curious whether there was any cultural production (musical or otherwise) that emerged back in the 18th century or thereabouts that we can hold up beside “The Massacre of Glencoe” for comparison.

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