Cruel is the snow – the massacre of Glencoe – part two
Glencoe, Scotland. |
Sir John Dalrymple |
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.