325 Years Ago a So-called Massacre Took Place in Glencoe Scotland

The called it a massacre but it wasn't. It was a horrible atrocity, yes, but you can't say that killing 39 people out of 200 is a Massacre.

Actually what happened was that they made sure that the families escaped over the hills. they fired shots in the air, they purposely did not block the escape routes. but the Clan Campbell got the blame just the same.

The beauty of the Valley is renowned, the high steep sided mountains, the river Coe running as it has done for 40 millions years have led to Glencoe being voted as one of the top Wonders of Scotland. There used to be small farmsteads here and there up the Valley. They were run by the Clan McDonald three hundred years ago. Not any more. You can rent many little cottage and chalets for your Summer vacations here. Young people play to-day when once people were killed in their beds.

Glencoe can be savage. The wind can get to storm force in a minute. You can get up to 15 inches of rain a year, that’s a tropical rain forest level. Climbers die every year on the rocks.

And, three hundreds years ago, a government inspired act of total savagery attempted to clear out all the clan people in Glencoe for all time. Soldiers were to kill the men in their beds, as they lay sleeping in the middle of the night.

The Massacre of Glencoe has gone down in history as one of the most appalling acts of genocide in the history of Britain.

The worst crime you can commit in Scotland is not just a simple Murder, it is a Murder Under Trust. This is when somene befriends you, gives you shelter, shares food with you, and then you muder them.

In the Scottish Highlands their code of conduct - even to-day - does not allow them to avoid giving help to travellers.

The facts
The atrocity occurred at 5.00am on February 13, 1692 when some of the 135 men in the Argyll regiment, who had been billeted for 11 days with McDonald families in the little Glencoe communities and receiving hospitality, turned on them after receiving orders to kill all the MacDonald men below the age of 70. The regiment were not all Campbells. Only a few were professional soldiers.

The Captain of the troop, Robert Campbell of Glenlyon who was 60, seems to have been deliberately chosen as a shambles of a man by all accounts, a drunkard, who had recently taken his army commission to help to clear his large gambling debts. He discovered his mission only the night before, when he was given his orders, by a Major Robert Duncanson. This major seems to be a key figure who kept well out of it himself. He had command of more troops who were billeted at what is to-day’s Ballachulish House. Glenlyon was promised that the Duncanson troops would be in support, but in the event they did not set out until 7.00am with more than an hours trek ahead of them. Duncanson clearly knew exactly what he was doing, He saw to it that Glenlyon would carry the blame. Glenlyon died later in the same year.

More telling facts
The killings began with gunfire. That is a sure way of the soldiers warning everyone up the glen that trouble is about. That was clearly deliberate. Swords and daggers would have been far quieter and more effective and would have seen off half of the targets before the MacDonalds were roused. They were at close quarters, for goodness’ sake.

It is thought that there were about 200 McDonald men in Glencoe. The total population was a little bigger than it is to-day, but more spread out. Yet only 39 were killed. After a surprise attack before dawn, as they all lay sleeping in their beds, with soldiers outside, in their yards and they succeeded in killing only 39? If the soldiers killed three McDonalds each, then only 13 soldiers were needed to do the job. They probably just used the usual psychos and case-hardened non-commissioned officers to do it. The rest must have fired into the air.

These soldier lads couldn’t do it. Not in any way. The person who had cooked for them for the past ten days was like their own mother. They had laughs with the boys, who worked on the farm just as their own brothers worked. They eyed the girls, and vice versa. Then they are told suddenly to get out their swords and rifles and kill all the men – it can’t be done. And they did not do it. They made sure the families were warned. – the soldiers got the blame for it, just the same.

It was known that two of Glenlyon’s lieutenants refused to carry out the murders and broke their swords. They were later prosecuted and freed. Also, according to tradition, the family of Campbell of Airds at Castle Stalker helped many of the fugitives.

Glenlyon himself, the commander of the troops was moved to mercy on two occasions: but both young McDonald men were promptly murdered by Duncanson.

Another telling fact
Additional soldiers were sent to block off the passes out of the Glen. Escaping McDonalds would head naturally the other way towards Duror in Appin. That is where their long-standing friends were, the Stewarts. They knew that another military force was at Ballachulish, so they would not go along the coast. There is a poor escape route out to Glen Etive for the families living up the valley and this was blocked off. Some of the 39 were killed here at the top of the Glen. But incredibly, the easier Appin routes were not blocked at all. Come on, that was deliberate.

The tactical plan, the plan for the atrocity, was probably Duncansons. He selected Glenlyon to lead the attack probably because Glenlyon was related by marriage to Alasdair Mcdonald, MacIain’s younger son. This would help to lull the suspicions of the people of Glencoe. They arrived and claimed hospitality under the Highland code and said that the Fort William garrison was full.

The McDonalds were very suspicious and wary. Campbell forces were always rather frightening. The McDonald Chief had been late in signing his loyalty oath to King William. Oh, they would have been very worried indeed but in ten days their fears settled down. The soldiers themselves had no idea why they were there, of course, so they would have been re-assuring.

We can be sure that Glenlyon had no prior knowledge of the task expected of him. Look at the threatening tone of the orders he received.

The event was planned by the government in London. There had been a civil war in Scotland, but the Highlanders had always been a law to themselves because of the remoteness and inaccessibility of the Region. The Clans did the bidding of their Chiefs, not the Crown. A new King, William, a Dutchman hated by the Highland Scots, with his wife and first cousin Mary, took over after all the disturbances of the English civil war. The main aim of the government was to pacify the whole country. This included the Highlands. The Act of Union between the two countries was still 15 years in the future.

The government decided to make all the Clan Chiefs vow an oath of loyalty by January 1st. The McDonald Chief, MacIain left it till late, then set out for Inverlochy, to-days Fort William, where he was told to go to Inverary to sign. He did so, but arrived six days after the deadline. All seemed well, but this was the excuse the government in London needed for teaching the Highlanders a lesson in treachery.

Afterwards, those responsible for organising the murders were pardoned by William. One became a colonel, another a knight, a third a peer, and a fourth an earl. Not surprising really, because William had personally signed the orders. All of this is well documented, from the subsequent Parliamentary Commission which later enquired into the crime. Dirty job politics, always has been, always will be.

The Clan Campbell was a very strong, wealthy clan originating in Strathclyde, but now based in Argyll, and their chiefs for centuries had the aim of being on the winning side whenever possible. In some years this meant fighting for the Crown, in other years fighting on the other side. They were feared, and with cause, by the other clans. You could not trust the Campnells.

This must be one of the most disgusting orders ever to be given to an army commander in British history. These are Glenlyon’s orders from Major Duncanson.

“You are hereby ordered to fall upon the Rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe, and put all to the sword under 70. You are to have especial care, that the Old Fox and his Sons do upon no account escape your Hands, you are to secure all the avenues that no man can escape: this you are to put in Execution at five a Clock in the Morning precisely, and by that time or very shortly after it, I’ll strive to be at you with a stronger party. If I do not come at five, you are not to tarry for me but fall on. Feb 12 1692.

It was an act of official policy, conceived by a Secretary of State for Scotland, Dalrymple, and executed by a Scottish commander-in-chief, approved by the King, and carried out by a regiment in the British Army. Indeed, the Argyll Regiment was deliberately chosen by Dalrymple because he knew how their involvement would be perceived. Under Scots law, “murder under trust” as this was, was the most heinous crime.

It is dreadful, isn't it, what people can do to each other sometimes - and it continues to-day in so many parts of the world.

John W