These venerable clans have been at loggerheads for centuries in the Highlands of Scotland. After King William of Orange defeated King James and assumed the English monarchy, he offered pardons to all the Scottish Clans which had opposed him in favor of James. It seems that the MacDonald Clan were a wee bit tardy in pledging their allegiance to the new King and his Minister for Scotland, John Dalrymple, organized a plan to deal with them-harshly.
On February 13th 1692, Dalrymple’s plan was put into effect by the Campbells at Glencoe. The MacDonalds were invited to the area for a feast, but at 5am the Campbells attacked them as they slept. At three separate locations in the Glencoe area thirty eight members of the MacDonald Clan were murdered. The Campbells pursued the escaping MacDonalds also, and burned several dwellings, causing the deaths, from exposure, of a further 40 women and children.
The Massacre of Glencoe demonstrated that the Monarch “served England and Scotland equally” was far from the truth, and divisions between the Highland and Lowland Scots persist to this day. In the Clachaig Inn in Glencoe I saw a sign on the door, during a trip in 2012, which read “No Hawkers or Campbells” It would be wrong to simply blame the Campbells for the massacre, the blame went right to the top.
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