Glencoe, Scotland.

In the year 1692 one of the most heinous state sponsored crimes in European history took place. A group of the soldiers from the Argyll regiment attacked their hosts at three dwellings around the village of Glencoe in the North west Highlands of Scotland. 38 members of the MacDonald clan were killed with another 40 dying of exposure due to the freezing winter weather. It was an incident that appalled the nation at the time and continues to shock to this day. This week’s murder ballad tells the story of this event and is entitled The massacre of Glencoe.


The chorus of the song contains these haunting, chilling words:

Oh cruel is the snow that sweeps Glencoe

And covers the grave o’ Donald

And cruel was the foe that raped Glencoe

                    And murdered the house o’ MacDonald

Here is The Corries version of the song:

The background to this story is centuries old rivalries, political opportunism and the abuse of traditional highland hospitality. As with many Scottish folk songs, swirling around the actual song, and the story of the song,  there lies a mythical tapestry that offers the goodies against the baddies. The baddies in the song are the members of Clan Campbell, with the haunted victims being the Clan MacDonald. Inevitability 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.’ There is also an interesting twist that raises questions about some of those on the Campbell side and whether they were all the heartless bad guys. Today’s entry sets out this astonishing back story and sets the scene for the infamous massacre and the reaction to it.

King James VII of Scotland & II of England

In 1688 the parliament of England removed King James as King of England and offered the throne of England to William of Orange, a Dutch protestant. James was the last Roman Catholic to sit on the thrones of England and Scotland. The Scots parliament followed and removed James as King. However they were not as keen on William of Orange as the English were. The supporters of James, known as Jacobites, were led by John Graham, Viscount of Dundee, (celebrated in Scots folk lore as ‘Bonnie Dundee’) to the battlefield in order to restore James to the throne.

Bonnie Dundee

Here The McCalmans sing their version of Bonnie Dundee

John Graham led the Jacobites to victory at the Battle of Killiecrankie but was killed at the end of the battle. After this the Jacobites went on to fight the supporters of William of Orange at the Battle of Dunkeld. The outcome of this battle was probably a score draw with both sides claiming victory, but neither really winning. At the end of this battle as the Highlanders returned west to the Highlands, the MacIains of Glencoe, part of Clan MacDonald and their cousins from Glengarry raided the lands of Campbell of Glenlyon and stole his cattle. This act forced Robert Campbell to take an army commission to be able to stay on his lands and maintain his family’s position. This act was the seed that bloomed into the massacre. What is interesting about this is that in Campbell’s claim for compensation against the theft, he clearly blames the men from Glengarry. Campbell hardly mentions the MacIains of Glencoe at all.

The cause of King James was finally defeated at the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland in 1690. In 1691 King William offered a pardon to all the Highland clans if they would take an oath of loyalty to him in front of a magistrate. This offer was made by William in August 1691. As was the nature of Highland loyalty and understanding that in order to make a pledge of loyalty to one King, they had to seek permission to come out of the loyalty to the other. So in this same month, the Highland clan chiefs wrote to King James in exile in France, seeking his permission to switch their oath from him to William. Not for the first time James put his own interest before that of his Highland clansmen. He had been hoping to launch an invasion of Britain in order to retake the throne. However the Winter brought dreadful weather and James realised that no invasion would take place at this point. James finally gave permission to the clans. The news reached the clans in mid December.

Another view of Glencoe

The last day to take the pledge was the 31st December. In Glencoe, the old chief, Alastair MacDonald, the MacIain, chief of Clan Iain Abrach of the MacDonalds of Glencoe left it until the very last day before heading to Fort William to take the pledge. Not for the first time MacIain faced the undefeatable power of bureaucracy. The commander at Fort William, Colonel John Hill, rightly told MacIain that he did have the power to accept his pledge and told him to head to Inveraray to take the oath in front of the Sheriff of Argyll, Sir Colin Campbell. The Colonel gave MacIain a letter promising safe passage and stating to Sir Colin Campbell that MacIain’s pledge should be accepted as he arrived on time in Fort William. Eventually MacIain made it to Inveraray after three days walking in dreadful weather and having been deliberatively held for a day by the same Earl of Argyll’s troops who would take part in the massacre. Sir Colin Campbell eventually accepted MacIain’s pledge. That should have been it. MacIain returned to his clan in Glencoe and they all settled down to getting through the winter.
However a plot was being developed in London and Edinburgh that would include the King himself and would see the terrible events unfolding.

In part two we will hear the story of the massacre as told in the song and see a copy of the orders signed by King William himself to leave “none alive called MacDonald.” We will also look at the aftermath and how some of the Campbells’ who took part in this story can actually hold their heads up high.

   
                                             A sign from the famous Clachaig Inn, Glencoe.