Dan Snow's History Hit - The Glencoe Massacre

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

Glencoe in the Scottish highlands is a beautiful landscape with a dark past. While folks from all over the world travel to this beautiful valley to hike, in 1692 it was the site of a treacherous massacre that had repercussions for Scotland and England into the next century. Scottish government troops had been sent on orders from King William III of England, to make an example of the MacDonald clan who had missed the deadline to pledge their allegiance to him as the new monarch. Government soldiers were sent to the homes of the Macdonalds where they were billeted - given lodging and food by the locals. The Macdonalds shared their homes, food, stories and songs before the soldiers revealed their true purpose in Glencoe. 12 days after arriving, they received their true orders to annihilate the entire population of the glen. The clan chief Alexander, or McIan as he was also known, was killed along with more than 30 other men women and children. Others fled into the highlands, succumbing to exposure, but most escaped with their lives. Dan is in Glencoe with Lucy Doogan and Derek Alexander of the National Trust for Scotland to tell the tale of this tragedy, the traditions and history of this magnificent landscape and how it shaped Scotland's past and present. This special episode is made possible by The National Lottery. National Lottery players have supported over 48,000 heritage projects alone since the inception of The National Lottery in 1994. This includes supporting The National Trust for Scotland to help keep green and historic spaces like Glencoe open to the public. The National Trust for Scotland has received £37 million of National Lottery funding which enables them to preserve properties and natural spaces across Scotland that are of great historical and architectural importance.  Produced by Mariana Des Forges, edited by Dougal Patmore.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!Download the History Hit app from the Google Play store.Download the History Hit app from the Apple Store.

Welcome to the show. This week we have a very special episode made possible by the National Lottery. You see, you might not know it, but if you're a National Lottery player, you've been responsible for supporting over 48,000 heritage projects alone since 1994. And why is this support so important? Well, whether it's a National Trust for Scotland location or anywhere else in the country, funding from National Lottery players allows these historical attractions and natural spaces to remain accessible to the public, ensuring that the rich history on display doesn't fade into obscurity. So just keep in mind when listening to today's episode that by playing the National Lottery you're supporting heritage organisations like the National Trust for Scotland.

Helping to keep historic and green spaces open to the public. Enjoy the show. Hey folks, welcome to Dan Snow's History. I'm in a car driving north on a grey, wet and windy day, which is entirely typical because I am travelling across Rannoch Moor on the west coast of Scotland. I've left Glasgow behind. I've driven the length of Loch Lomond where I saw rainbows through the mist as the sun would occasionally flash out and give us little views across that beautiful loch. I've passed the left-hand turn to Campbell town in Kintyre where my mum's family emigrated from to Canada 100 years ago, 130 years ago now, and I'm now on Rannoch Moor, the wide open moonscape, unbelievably beautiful, barren,

treeless landscape of rock, of heather and of water. I'm heading towards Glencoe, it's a favourite of tourists, wonderful hiking, sightseeing but it's a place with a very dark past. It's been a backdrop to clan clashes, one particular terrible slaughter which has an important part to play in Scotland's long remarkable history. So on this atmospheric day with these low-hanging clouds, I'm here to unravel the story of the Glencoe Massacre, which took place here in February 1692. You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the McDonalds of Glencoe,

and put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special 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 may escape. This you are to put in execution at five of the clock precisely. five of the clock precisely. This is by the king's special command, for the good and safety of the country, that these miscreants be cut off root and branch. This was known dramatically as a letter of fire and sword. It was issued in 1691. It gave authorisation, well, for savage attacks really, on any Scottish clans who refused to pledge allegiance to the new joint monarchs of England and Scotland, William and Mary.

Well, the one you just heard was issued when Alexander MacDonald, chief of the clan MacDonald, hadn't signed the pledge by the deadline. So keen to make an example of what would happen if clans did delay, the King's Secretary of State for Scotland, John Dalrymple, ordered a punitive expedition against the McDonalds. He enlisted the help of the King's chief Scottish advisor, Archibald Campbell, the first Earl of Argyll. The Campbells would set themselves out as being particularly loyal to the government in London of William and Mary and their successors. And so he sent a group of his clansmen working for the government, basically government troops, to Glencoe right here. And they announced that they would expect food, shelter, they'd be billeted on the local people who were largely McDonald's. Just over a week later, these soldiers, these

government soldiers, the Campbells, turned on their hosts. They attacked the McDonalds. This really is a day that has lived in infamy in Scottish history. Not just because of the number of people who lost their lives, but because the men had been enjoying their victims' hospitality in the days leading up to the massacre. So that's why I'm here in Glencoe, I'm here to make sense of this slaying. I'm going to find out who the victims were, the clanspeople were. And I'm also going to find out how the people in this area attempted to resist the changes that were being forced on them from the south. In this remote part of the Scottish Highlands, I'm going to be meeting Lucy Dugan, who works for National Trust Scotland.

There's a personal connection to the massacre, as well as Derek Alexander, who's head of archaeological services at National Trust Scotland, has a personal connection to the massacre, as well as Derek Alexander, who's head of archeological services at National Trust Scotland, and who's looking after an excavation at Glencoe. And I'm here thanks to the teams that preserve historical heritage sites just like this. And for many of those sites, that's thanks to National Lottery players.

If you're a National Lottery player tuning in today, you have a genuine reason to feel proud of the role you play in keeping important places like Glencoe accessible. Right, well I can't see anything at all through this low cloud but I think we're getting pretty close to Glencoe. I've just seen a sign. Well I've just got out of the car and the low clouds haven't really lifted but I can see the outline, the lower slopes of these huge mountains stretching off right the way down this mighty glen, Glencoe. This is a classic highland scene.

The highlands are basically a part of North and West Scotland which are hilly, they are high, they're kind of mountainous. It's not just a geographical description it's come to mean something cultural and historical as well. The Highlands and the Highlanders who lived here were often well almost beyond the control of government whether that government was in Edinburgh or later after the union of England and Scotland, whether that government was all the way down in London. The remoteness of the Highlands, the traditional clan structure, the religion, the culture, it meant that Highlanders were different to lowland Scots who lived settled agricultural

lives and also to the English who lived further south. And then through the rest of the 1690s the lowlanders on the whole were probably more supportive of the new King William and Queen Mary and when it came to the act of union between England and Scotland just a few years after the Glencomasca in 1707 it's fair to say I think that the lowlandersers probably more positive about that union than some of the Highland clans living up here. And the reason I've got out of the car here is because I'm at the National Trust for Scotland's Glencoe Visitor Centre and I'm here to talk to Lucy Dugan

who's an expert on all things Glencoe. She grew up around here and now she works with the National Trust of Scotland helping to educate and inform and entertain other people about the folklore, the history and the natural world of Glencoe. And I'm going to ask Lucy all about the McDonald's of Glencoe. Who were they and how did they live? T-min minus 10.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. God save the king. No black-white unity till there is first in black unity. Never to go to war with one another again. And lift off, and the shuttle has cleared the tower. Hey Lucy, how are you going? I'm good, thank you, how are you? Very good to see you, yeah'm good, thank you. How are you?

Very good to see you. Good, thank you. What an amazing place. Tell me, where are we? We are in Glencoe in the Highlands of Scotland. Start me with the Highlands. You hear this in British and Scottish history so much, like the Highlands versus the Lowlands. What are we talking about there? The Highlands is, I suppose, a geographical area of Scotland,

north of the Highland line, but suppose, a geographical area of Scotland, north of the Highland line, but also parts of the west of Scotland would also be considered the Highlands. In Gaelic, we call it the Gaeltoch, so basically areas that were Gaelic-speaking or had a rich Gaelic culture could be part of the Highlands as well. So there was quite a divide between these kind of rugged, mountainous Highlands then the lowlands where there would have been different languages spoken they'd have seen themselves as quite different people would they? I think so yeah there was definitely differences in language and culture and yeah the highlands I think a lot of people were you know subsistence farming and their life revolved around cattle and cattle droving and in some instances cattle rustling. The whole society, I think, was quite different,

the way that it was organised. The Highlands, of course, had the clan system for centuries. Tell me about the clans. You hear about this in Scottish history so much. What are clans? A clan is essentially like a family group, it comes from the Gaelic word clon which means children. So it's a family group, it's a system of Gaelic aristocracy I suppose, ruling families that were in charge of different areas of the highlands and a clan although it means children and you kind of assume that everybody in a clan is related to each other it didn't necessarily always work in that way it

could be an assumed kindred connections you weren't all necessarily related by blood but it was an assumed kinship of all belonging to one group beneath one ruling family. The clans, they have a reputation being fiercely independent. They are geographically removed from the centres of power down south in Edinburgh, especially from London. And so they weren't necessarily subservient to central government as other parts of England

or Scotland might have been. I think being geographically removed and having their whole society based on this clan system meant that the people living in the Highlands they would have thought of their clan chief as more important than any other figure in government in Edinburgh or elsewhere. The clan chief and all of the politics that were going on in the Highlands were more important to them and much more a part of their daily life.

Speaking of daily life, I can see across the burn there, you've got an extraordinary reconstruction of the kind of dwelling that people around here might have lived in. Shall we go and check it out? Yeah, let's go. Tell me about it.

This is our reconstruction of a 17th century style building. It's a turf and creel house. It has a timber crook frame and then creel walls or wattle walls on the inside and turf on the exterior walls. What we're looking at is kind of a squat dwelling.

We have walls made of big stones that have been moved to be a foundation here. Turf with lots of lovely grass and plants growing out of it it's very cool and then is this heather this roof here? Yeah that's a heather thatch. So it's a heather thatch and this is quite a hostile environment but it would be quite warm and snug in there? Yeah we have fires in here as often as we can to try and heat the space and help

to preserve the materials. Traditionally you know they would have had a fire burning constantly day and night it would be rekindled in the morning and at night time they would smear the fire kind of cover it over with the ashes just so that it's smoldered overnight and would be rekindled again in the morning. Shall we go inside? Yeah perfect. So the door here is about four foot high so I'm gonna have to have a little The door here is about four foot high so I'm going to have to have a little crouch to get in. Here we go. The interesting thing about this is that, you know, we might imagine that the doors are low because people in the past were much smaller than we are now and they might have been a bit smaller but somebody told me this story and I can't remember now who it was but they said

obviously you want small doors so that you don't lose as much heat from the building and humans are able to crouch down or bend down to get in through the door but a cow is not able to do that so you just have to make sure your door is big enough for the cow to get through and then you're fine so there would have been cows in here as well as people yes so it was really common in glencoe but also probably all over the world in the past to bring livestock inside the house to help heat the building because they give off huge amounts of body heat. And in this building, there isn't a chimney. We know from travel journals and documents

from the 17th, 18th, 19th century, they always mention how smoky the houses were in the Highlands. And there's a description of a man travelling through Tyndrum and he says he passes a little cottage with smoke billowing out through the windows and doors. And some houses did have chimneys or kind of makeshift chimneys, but they didn't all have chimneys. So you can't have a huge big roaring fire in here to keep yourself warm

because you won't be able to breathe for all the smoke. So you have to get a bit creative and find other ways to heat the building. These are the MacDonalds living here in Glencoe. They're part of the Clan Donald, mighty clan. You've got a connection, you've got a family connection to this massacre apparently. There are a lot of people in the area who have some stories that have been handed down over the generations and have some link. As far as I'm aware I'm not descended of the McDonald's of Glencoe but I am descended from Rankins, from Typhurs. And the story goes, or one story goes, that one of the first people killed in the massacre of Glencoe

was a man by the name of Rankin. He worked for McKeon, for the clan chief, and for whatever reason he was awake early in the morning or was woken by the sounds of the soldiers. He saw the soldiers coming down towards Polovik, which we now know as Invercoe, and he ran to try and warn McKeon, warn the clan chief that he needed to escape. This man Rankin got to the river and he started to wade across and while he was halfway across

the river, thigh deep in icy water, one of the soldiers took aim and shot him in the back and he was killed on his way to warn the clan chief. That's how he, one of the soldiers took aim and shot him in the back and he was killed on his way to warn the clan chief. That's how he became one of the first people killed in the massacre and how he was unable to warn McKeon and unfortunately McKeon didn't manage to escape and was killed by the soldiers. How did they fall out with the government? Well the McDonald's of Glencoe had maybe not the best reputation at this point. They were considered to be a bit lawless and rebellious and maybe had a bit of a black mark against their name for not doing what they were told and living by the rules. They were known as cattle rustlers which I think had been part of

Highland tradition, Highland culture for centuries. It was an ancient tradition. They maybe just carried it on a little bit longer than some other people, which didn't go down too well. Like many other local families, the Macdonalds of Glencoe supported James, King James II. So he'd just been deposed. He had just been deposed. In a couple of years before by his son-in-law, William, and his daughter. Brutal.

So William, the new king, wanted all of these clan chiefs to sign an oath of allegiance to him. He obviously understood that they were powerful and they had men behind them and he needed them to be on his side. So he asked for this oath of allegiance from all the clan chiefs and because a lot of the Highland clan chiefs were still in support of James they didn't go and sign this oath straight away. They waited and they sent messengers over to France where James was in exile to ask permission essentially to sign this oath of allegiance

and let him know that even though they were going to sign it they would still back him up if he decided to come back instead. So it was quite late by the time they heard word back from France that they were allowed to sign this oath and they had permission to sign it. McKeon, who was the clan chief of the McDonalds of Glencoe, he headed up to the garrison at Fort William. So that would be a garrison of royal Scottish government soldiers. That's right. Loyal to the new King William. Yes.

So he headed up there to sign this oath of allegiance and he left it a little bit late. He was pretty close to the deadline. I think only left himself a day or two before the deadline of the 1st of January 1692. However, when he got there to the garrison at Fort William, he was turned away. He was told, we can't take your oath here because we need a sheriff to co-sign it with you. Our sheriff needs to be here to take your oath. So basically they said, turn around,

come back the way you came and keep going until you get to Inverary and you can sign there in the presence of a sheriff. He's likely walking from Glencoe to Fort William which is about 15 miles or more and then back down to Inverary which is a whole lot further and by the time he gets there he's missed the deadline of the 1st of January. But he has been told by Colonel Hill in Fort William that he's written him a letter to say he did try to sign the oath on time so he gets to Inverary and wants to sign this oath only to find out that new year's celebrations are happening and the sheriff's gone off somewhere he's not there so he has to wait another couple of days for him to return and eventually he does send the oath but it's not until the 6th of January

so he's told that his oath has been taken. He heads back to Glencoe. But further down the line, somebody decides that because he has this bad reputation and he's considered quite rebellious, and also because he's not particularly powerful in terms of other clan chiefs, you know, it's quite a small clan group in Glencoe, he'd probably be good to make an example of to these other clan chiefs and they decide that they are not going to accept his oath however I don't think anyone bothered to tell him that so I think their reputation as being quite lawless and rebellious and also the fact that

they weren't particularly powerful as that small septicland Donald. They were kind of chosen to be the scapegoat. So somebody has made the decision to make an example out of the little McDonald's of Glencoe. What happens next? So after McKeon had signed the oath in Inverary, he headed back up to Glencoe and got on with life as normal. As far as he's aware, he has signed his oath of allegiance and he's now under the protection of the government soldiers.

He's on the same side as them, essentially. So at the start of February, two companies of the Earl of Argyll's regiment come into Glencoe, about 120 soldiers, and they're billeted on the McDonald's of Glencoe. So essentially, they're billeted on the McDonald's of Glencoe so essentially they're asked to look after these soldiers and shelter them and feed them and for doing so they'll have to pay less tax when it comes up. So these are government soldiers are they drawn from everywhere around Scotland or are they also part of this kind of clan system themselves?

Many of them would have been part of the clan system, coming from Argyll, which was the same kind of... Much of Argyll was considered the Highlands, although nowadays it might not. It was part of that Gaelic area, Gaelic-speaking area, and very much part of the clan system. The Earl of Argyll was a Campbell. And so the Earl of Argyll would become the Duke of Argyll,

he was a Campbell, and their brand became supporting the government in the Highlands, like a bit of enforcers, didn't they? Yeah. Is it still remembered, this kind of Campbell animosity? Because my grandad, who was a Macmillan, talks about the Campbells all the time. It was kind of painted, the whole massacre was painted

as the Campbells massacring the McDonalds. And there's definitely still quite a strong held belief that it was all the fault of the Campbells and that this rivalry still exists today. It was a long-running rivalry. The Campbells and the McDonalds were two really powerful families, two really powerful clans in the Highlands for centuries. And the massacre of Glencoe wasn't the beginning or the end of it. It was just one part of it.

The Campbells are still seen as the instigators of the massacre and they're still remembered. There's lots of stories within the folklore about the Campbells and McDonalds feuding. At a local pub just in the Glen, there's still a sign underneath the reception that says, no hawkers, no Campbells and McDonalds feuding. At a local pub just in the Glen, there's still a sign underneath the reception that says, no hawkers, no Campbells. Obviously, we're not actually going to chase Campbells out of the Glen.

There are, of course, Campbells that live here and have for many, many years. But it still is kind of held in people's minds that it was Campbells versus McDonalds when actually, really, it was the government versus Jacob's when actually really it was the government versus Jacobites. Yes it was the government against this clan who they identified as potential rebels. So what happens when the Campbell led government forces arrive in the Glen and they are billeted on people in houses like this? This idea of Highland hospitality has been very strong in the Highlands for centuries

and it was the idea that you never locked your door and you never turned a stranger away. You always took somebody in and fed them and sheltered them because you never know when it would be you that needs that shelter yourself. And the McDonalds of Glencoe, the people living in Glencoe, they actually took the soldiers in and they lived in their homes for 12 nights until the night of the 12th of February they received their true orders from Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon. He told them that they were to put all to the sword the following morning beginning at 5am. So they had shared their homes, shared their food, shared stories and songs and card games and everything.

And then the soldiers were told why they were really there and that they were going to have to turn on their hosts and betray their hospitality and their kindness. For the next part of the story, I think it's best if I pass you on to my colleague Derek Alexander, who is the head archaeologist for the National Trust for Scotland. And he's going to show you around the excavation site up at Achatriechen further down the glen. You've left me on a bit of a cliffhanger there I'm desperate to find out what happens but before I go and see Derek can I ask you you work here at the National Trust for

Scotland in Glencoe why do you do what you do why do you think it's so important that passes by people of Scotland people of the world know about these stories i think that in scotland and in the highlands we have such a wealth of history and stories and you know not a lot of this history is just easily visible driving through the glen unless you looked it up and read about it beforehand you'd never know that these things had happened here there's very little kind of evidence in the landscape unless you go out looking for it and i think there's a lot that we can learn from these stories and these people should be remembered all these lives that were lived here before us these layers of time are kind of stacked on

top of each other and they're all linked to the landscape and a lot of the folklore in this area is very rooted in the landscape as well and I think that these are stories that need to be remembered and need to be passed on to people and not forgotten because they so easily can be lost. And the National Trust for Scotland, we want to share nature, heritage and beauty for everyone. The more that people understand the history of this place

and can understand the stories that have come from this landscape and from the people of this place and can understand the stories that have come from this landscape and from the people of this area the more they will feel connected to themselves and want to help us conserve it and keep it going and keep it healthy and safe for future generations. Hey Derek how you doing? Good to see you. Nice to meet you. Why don't you take me up to the masker seat? Yeah, come this way. Crikey. All right Derek, the weather's taken a turn for the worse. It's always like this in the middle of Glencoe. Just depends on the height of the cloud. Yeah. Yeah, so right now it's pretty far down. We're in the cloud now. Yeah. So lead on, where are we going? So we're going along basically cloud. Yeah. So right now it's pretty far down. We're in the cloud now. Yeah.

So lead on, where are we going? So we're going along basically the old road. So this is the road that was here really from the 18th century. And the road that we've just come along was built in the 1930s. So we know that the township of Achtrychton was on the north side of the road. When you say township, how should we imagine the people spread out along the glen? Yeah, so when you think of Glencoe now,

everybody thinks of Glencoe Village, which is down on Loch Leven, right at the river mouth, down on the seashore there. But in fact, in the 18th century, we know from map evidence, and it shows about seven or eight townships, and a township would be a cluster of buildings really a sort of large scale farm with maybe 40 or 50 people living in each one and there would be seven or eight of these all the way up the glen so we know the names of some

of them so at the mouth of the glen we have Invercoe, Carnock, Polweg, Achnacon, the field of the dogs at the corner of the glen there and then as high up the glen as we could get Achtreechten which is this site that we are going out to now so we have a rough idea of the numbers of people that were living there. There's probably four or five hundred people living in the glen in the 18th century and probably it was the same in the late 17th century and 1690s. You're a lucky man to be an archaeologist in Scotland, such a diversity of sites and periods in a reasonably small area, you're incredibly lucky. It's a great job. And as you say,

there's a range of different historical and prehistoric periods that we cover, all the way through from hunter-gatherers right through to the Second World War. And were you one of those kids that was out digging in the backyard?

You know, I was. I mean, when I was a kid, I liked nothing better than to be digging the puddles in the back garden. And I remember doing it in the garden in Nielsen where mum and dad lived and there was an old tatty shed there that had fallen over and I dug out and there's lots of pottery and glass but there was also I found a

wee ceramic gnome, a garden gnome, you know I must have been about 12 or something like that you know so I took them out, cleaned them up, washed them off and I remember painting them, I probably still got them somewhere so yeah that's maybe one of the, and I remember painting them. I've probably still got them somewhere. So, yeah, that's maybe one of the ways I got into archaeology. And I suppose the great thing about your job now is that you're helping other people across the country get into it. Yeah, and we do a lot of public engagement work, not just with our volunteers, but we do work on National Trust for Scotland properties

where we invite members of the public to come and help excavate things so we've done quite a few projects like that some with national lottery funding you mentioned the volunteers i mean obviously there's you've got plenty of people you can call on who love digging yeah absolutely both um we have a team of archaeological volunteers with the national trust for scotland but we also have you know people who live locally who come and help us as well. So it's a really useful thing. Archaeology is a very hands-on thing, so people can come and get involved. So our hope is that we'll come back and do some more excavation here, looking at some of the other buildings and build up a better picture over time.

We've really only just started here. How has your career, what you've done, been affected by the National History Funding? Well, we've undertaken a number of archaeological projects or projects that include archaeological elements to them because it's very often a bigger project that we're involved with. We did work at Bannockburn in advance of the 700th anniversary and the new visitor centre there. It's a great site.

It's great. We did work on the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade at Killane Castle, where Scipio Kennedy was one of the freed enslaved the slave trade at Killane Castle where Skippy O'Kennedy was one of the freed enslaved people on the estate and got his own house built. We had a look for his house. And then probably in terms of Glencoe, the most important project that we've done from an archaeological point of view with the National Lottery funding was the Ben Lors Historic Landscape Project which spent about 24 weeks of fieldwork over four or five years working with volunteers in Glasgow University and other specialists, looking at a landscape very similar to this

that goes back from the 19th century into the medieval period. And that was where we first started picking up evidence for houses very similar to the ones that we've been digging here and many of them which would have had a turf element in their construction just like the replica at Glencoe. So Lucy's taken me through this dramatic tale, through to that winter's morning. The government troops are billeted on these people, so it's right the way along the glen? Yeah, right the way through the glen. So there was 120 of them, so they needed to divide them into smaller groups,

probably platoons or something like that, eight men, and they would have been allocated to buildings. It's likely that some of the officers and NCOs would have been put up in some of the houses, but probably the men, the privates, were put into barns and byers and outbuildings as well and of course these townships each would have had a group so we know that you know they were probably spread throughout the glen and there was concentrations where the chief, where McKeon was staying and at Inverigan where Captain Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon was staying but apart from that they've been posted all the way through the gl Glen. How did the captain manage to get word to all his men to act on that morning in unison?

We're not 100% clear about that. I think they gathered them together with the view that they were meant to be leaving the Glen and this is what the McDonalds of Glen Coe thought that the soldiers were leaving to attack the McDonalds of Glengarry and so what they do is they assemble, say they're leaving at five in the morning, they assemble the troops, they look like they're about to leave the Glen, then they come back in and start attacking each of the townships.

Whether there was guys at each of the townships, we know that at Inverigan, where Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon was, the people there were bound hand and foot and gagged. There was nine of them, overnight so that they couldn't warn anybody else and first thing in the morning they're taken outside and shot at point blank range against the buildings. So this massacre begins, it begins down there and spreads up the glen do you think? Yeah well I mean there's a certain amount of... It probably happened with increased enthusiasm

where there was officers and NCOs. Where there were privates, it's likely that there was less enthusiasm showing. So it's likely that many of the people got away. You know, we know that there was at least 34 people killed, but that's out of a population of you know 400-500 so as a massacre it wasn't very successful but you know a lot of folk did get away. What was the aim of the massacre? I mean was it almost that sounds genocidal, killed everyone who lives in the whole

land? That's what the orders that were given that came down State, I mean it starts off there's a number of orders that say every man under the age of 70 but there's covering letters from Dalrymple, the Earl of Stair who's the Secretary of State for Scotland that says extirpate the clan you know, cut them off root and branch. So that's interpreted by a number of the other people as everybody and of course that's what leads to the atrocity itself. This is the site just here. So what you can see on the south side,

here are a number of trees standing up around some stone built structures. These are 19th century farm houses that are probably sheep farms. So there's one here, one on the other side of the road. Of course, you've got to imagine the modern road wouldn't have been there. It's on the line where we are. And on that 18th century map it shows in

fact that there was a township on the north side of the track that runs through the glen and that's on this side opposite the side from the 19th century township. So we came along, had a look to see if there was any foundations and we're quite surprised the more we looked the more things came up so I'll take you over and show you what we got. What's best to do probably is to start with the building over here which is something similar to what we had before we started excavating and then look at the one that we got when we excavated. And what period do you think we might be looking at? Is there any possibility these could have

been standing during the massacre itself? Well, you know, our problem with the archaeology is that there's no good mapping of the glen until the 1750s, but that's only 60 years after the massacre. We know that they came back quite quickly and rebuilt their buildings. Achtriechton here has a place name that is mentioned at the massacre and in fact the taxman from here went down and visited his brother at Achnacon the night of the 12th and he stays over there and he's killed in the morning when they burst in through the doors of that site. So he's gone from this site down to see his brother at Achnicon and is killed there.

The reason that they chose Glencoe to set an example is not just because they're a small, poor clan and they're quite noticeable in terms of being cattle thieves and being involved as Jacobites, but the glen itself lends itself to being a good place for the massacres because the idea was they're going to block the western end and the southern end. So it's not just the 120 guys that are billeted here. 400 men under Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton come over the Devil's Staircase and come in from this end. And another 120 men come in at the bottom end under Duncanson.

But they don't arrive till seven at the bottom end. And Hamilton is delayed and the snow is coming off. He doesn't get here till 11, and of course, the order's given at five, so by that time, many of the people in the upper parts of the glen hear gunshots, see fires, hear screams, they get out. And so there's probably, from this township, quite a lot of people escaped to the east,

and then over across to Appen and Dullness and Doorer and all that area over there. If the plan had worked there could have been many more people. Absolutely if the plan had worked there would have been a you know an annihilation there would be you know 400 500 people as it was it was pretty gruesome and is notorious for that. Now why is it notorious because you hear about these clans raiding each other's lands and it could be a very violent place. What is it about this one that stood out? Well, the thing that stood out is this abuse of Highland hospitality,

is the fact that they're here for 12 days before turning on their hosts. And, you know, it's not just that the clan has given them hospitality, has fed them, put a roof over their heads, all these sort of things. They're hosting them, putting them up in lieu of tax, which already means that the government has recognised them as citizens of the kingdom, and then they're turning on their citizens.

So it's doubly bad. So it's not just the Highland hospitality, it's the fact that they're killing citizens that have been recognised as such. And how many people do we think were killed, and what are the latest figures? So there's, between 34 and 38 are the numbers that are given of which 13 are listed as being men the others are women and children but there's an idea that quite a lot more of them

probably up to somewhere in 70, 80 casualty number would have been because they died of exposure in the snow going they're woken up at five in the morning grabbing their stuff from their beds and having to go out into the snow and try and head across the mountains to up and to escape so quite a few of the old folk didn't make it you know and we're here in february we're here in february yeah there's some snow on the peaks yeah it's the temperatures in the very low single digits yeah and we're here in mid-afternoon you want to be here at five in the morning it's going to be cold and these buildings we're looking at, would they have put them to the torch as well? Yeah, so as suggested, and certainly in the report, that the buildings were burnt.

So some of them were burnt with, we know, casualties still inside them. Again, and as you've seen with the turf house, organic buildings, they go up quite quickly. Heather thatch roof and all the wooden elements on the inside would burn quite quickly. Heather Thatch roof and all the wooden elements on the inside would burn quite quickly. What effect did it have? I mean, we're now looking at these ruined houses, but you think these ones would have been repaired quite quickly and the community would have filtered back into this glen?

The sons of Macian come back and try and basically get into the King's Peace and I think the main elements of the clan come back by about August and the houses are being rebuilt by then. They stay up until that point with fellows across in Appen and they're put up for a short period of time but the soldiers pretty much leave on the same day as the massacre taking all the cattle and sheep and things with them so many people

return at that point and bury the dead and And we know McKeon, for example, is buried on Eilean Munda in the loch at the mouth of Glencore there. It was an atrocity, but it didn't change the pattern of settlement or the community here in the very long term. No. Basically, from what we see from the map evidence

and from the names of the settlements, they come back to the same places and rebuild. They probably salvaged some of the big timbers, could still be reused. They may have rebuilt on some of the existing foundations although they may have to build completely new structures where damage was too bad. So from that point of view, no it doesn't change the settlement. When you're excavating these sites there's very little chance you're going to find something connected with the massacre right? That's a one in a million. Yeah it is one in a million it's a difficult thing to be able to prove archaeologically even if you found an area of

complete burning dating that would be difficult so radiocarbon dating is no use it wouldn't be too wide an error what you need is something dateable you know so artifacts coins. So men from, well, right where we're standing now, in 1745, join probably the most famous romanticize of all the Jacobite uprisings when Bonnie Prince Charlie tries to get the throne of his Stuart ancestors back. And do you think that there was particularly enthusiasm here because of the memories of the massacre? Like most sort of clan loiters, that would probably stir them up slightly, definitely. But they probably do what they're told.

So basically, if the chief decides to go, then everybody goes. And that's what was so dangerous about Highland clans, is they could raise large numbers of men very quickly. And that's what the government was nervous about. And that's why William wanted to set an example, so that he could pacify the Highlands and remove his troops which were tied up here so they could go and fight on the continent. So having done the massacre, there is an element of success to it from William's point of view in that most of the other clans sign up to the oath of allegiance. Doesn't mean that they don't

come out in 1715, 1719, 1745. But for a short period of time, does what probably William desired. So that's fascinating. So in the short term, you could say that the masquerade did serve a purpose. King William got the acquiescence he wanted from the other Highland clans. Yeah, for a short term, for a very short term.

Of course, the big problem for William is that it has a big impact on his reputation. And of course, there's an inquiry set up. And although nobody is really found guilty, it pretty much lays the blame at his door, but also at Dalrymple, Earl of Stair's door, who was responsible. He was the Secretary of State for Scotland, and he's forced pretty much to resign. So although it might have had a short-term military benefit, in the longer term, medium to long term,

it did terrible damage to the cause of William, Queen Anne, and then the Hanoverian monarchs, and I guess the idea of Anglo-Scottish union. Yeah, I mean, William used the fact that he had arguments with the Scottish Parliament over the massacre of Glencoe. He didn't like the Scottish Parliament and Stair, Dalrymple, pretty much uses that as an argument to say, wouldn't it be better if we didn't have one?

Why don't we unite the parliaments? And so 1707, that's what ends up happening and Stair comes back to the front again. So that is amazing. So the massacre here has repercussions that rumble on for well for generations this is a infamous event this is a famous event in the history of Scotland for me in public understanding. Yes absolutely and you know it's the sort of thing you hear about in tales and you've seen in pictures and you know art galleries and things like that but from an archaeological point of view one of the things I

was interested in is, where were these places on the ground? And that was what we were interested in going and seeing and doing the survey and excavation work from. Because, you know, it's sort of infamous, it's well known, but you go, yeah, but where did it happen? And that's what we're starting to unpick now. It's obviously a hugely well-known part of Scottish history.

People want to come visit, people are fascinated by it. What do you think the legacy of it is today? I think it's that idea that we often still get in current conflicts, you know, where the chain of command, how people will obey orders no matter what those orders are. Having said that, some of the officers and the soldiers at the time we knew didn't agree with it and they gave warnings or refused to participate that's something obviously that still happens today so I think it's a good way to tell some of those stories how would we act in those positions which is terrifying to have to think about well like all history and archaeology it's just a great way of learning about ourselves. Absolutely. We're studying the past but learning about ourselves. Exactly. Well thank you very

much Derek, thank you for showing me the site, this incredible settlement from the time of the massacre and talking me through the massacre itself and all its repercussions. Thanks for coming out. I was about to hop back in the car and go and find somewhere to warm up, maybe that local pub where there's that sign on the bar saying no camels. I might look in there and have a wee dram. It's been an amazing thing to go and see the foundations of the buildings that have been excavated in this glen to be here in February, to feel the bite of the cold on your face and hands as you walk along and you realise that even for those who survived the massacre who ran into these hills that I'm walking on now, who survived the massacre, who ran into these hills that I'm walking on now,

it could have been just as certain a death as a bayonet or a bullet. It would have been very hard. The exposure, they would have been so vulnerable to exposure. It's just a fascinating thing that what happened here in this glen, in this valley, wasn't just an atrocity, wasn't just a tragedy for the people immediately involved, an atrocity, it wasn't just a tragedy for the people immediately involved but actually had repercussions that spread far far wider than this remote part of Scotland. What happened here would make itself felt in the corridors of power in Edinburgh and all the way south in London. It really did shape the course of Scottish and British history. Thank you very much to the National Lottery for sending me up on this mission. It's been great to see firsthand the sense of community,

of engagement, their support for these archaeological projects has fostered. And thank you all for buying a National Lottery ticket. Supporting an organisation that gives so much to our history and heritage is a great thing to do. And lottery support is one of the reasons that our galleries, our museums, our heritage sites are some of the best in the world. We are truly best in the UK. So that's all from today's episode. Thank you so much to the National Lottery for a chance to visit this site and uncover its

fascinating story. Remember, by playing the National Lottery, you're supporting heritage organisations like the National Trust for Scotland, helping to keep historic and green spaces open to the public. It's truly amazing what National Lottery players do for people. Thanks for listening.