Glencoe

Tuesday, 29 June, 2010

Ratagan to Glencoe

At breakfast this morning we looked out across the loch with the a mountain reflected in it, a beautiful sight as the mountain was not covered in cloud, unlike the Five Sisters of Kintail which were covered in cloud, all these peaks are over 1000 m. high.

Our first stop was at the site of the Battle of Glen Shiel but apart from a sign with 1719 there is no information to indicate the significance of this location. The battle occurred in 1719 during one of the early Jacobite uprisings but this was quickly put down by the English army.

Driving on to Spean Bridge we arrived at the Commando Memorial which was built to commemorate the WW2 Commandos and in 1942 this area became the training base for the Commando Units. Since our last visit a circular memorial area has been built and on its inside perimeter are hundreds of small personal memorial to Commandos who have died in service or just of old age, some very recent ones were for men killed in Afghanistan, one a young man of 21 had his Green Beret laid with the small memorial.

The next memorial, the Glenfinnan Monument, is from an earlier age and it is situated at the head of Loch Shiel and commemorates the site of Bonny Prince Charlie’s raising of his father’s royal standard and calling the clans to support his attempt to restore the Catholic Stuarts to the English throne. The monument was built in the early 1800s and can be climbed inside by a narrow winding stone staircase, 60 steps to the top; at the top we had a view down Loch Shiel and back towards the mountains and the Glenfinnan railway viaduct. We have now completed a Bonny Prince Charlie trip in reverse, starting with his defeat at Culloden and finishing at the start of his uprising.

Near Fort William we arrived at the end of the Caledonian Canal, another of Thomas Telford’s engineering works, the canal runs from Loch Ness and finishes with the “Neptune’s Staircase” a series of nine locks dropping 21 m. to Loch Linnhe. After the last lock there are two swing bridges, one carries road traffic and the other the train line, while we were there we watched two yachts pass through four of the locks and past the two opened bridges before entering Loch Linnhe to return home, one to France the other to Finland. The charge to travel along the canal is £18.50 per metre of boat length and is valid for eight days.

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From the canal we drove on to our hostel for tonight, through the village of Glencoe and along a single track road, tomorrow we hope to find out more about the significance of Glencoe.

Wednesday, 30 June, 2010

Glencoe to Loch Lomond

We started the day with a visit to the National Trust of Scotland’s Glencoe visitors centre. Glencoe, literally “The Valley of the Weeping” is probably best known for the slaughter of members of the MacDonald Clan but it is a popular centre for walking and mountain climbing in both winter and summer.

In 1691 King William demanded the Clan Chiefs swear a pledge of loyalty to the English Crown by January 1^st 1692, with the threat of reprisals if they did not comply. The Chief of the MacDonalds missed the deadline by five days because of the atrocious weather conditions but pledged his loyalty on the sixth; however the authorities in Edinburgh would not accept this late pledge and ordered the troops at Fort William to eliminate the Clan. The soldiers, many of them from the Campbell Clan and led by a Campbell Captain accepted the hospitality of the MacDonalds for ten days but early one morning in February 1692 the Captain ordered the attack and more than thirty men, women and children were killed and their homes burnt, many who survived the slaughter were stripped and sent out in the snow where dozens more perished. Many Clan members survived and it is thought they had received a warning from troops who were against the planned attack.

From Glencoe we headed south towards Glasgow driving past many more “Munros”, mountains over 3,000 feet, which the serious walkers try to “bag” as many as possible, some have climbed every one. About 15 miles from Glencoe the country flattened out between mountain ranges, this was Rannoch Moor which featured in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Kidnapped, and is also famous for the many species of rare wildlife is supports, including the ferox trout which origins go back to the ice age.

Leaving the moor we moved back into the mountains with the winding narrow road and steep inclines, at least the moor allowed us to relax a little. Ten miles from the moor and about four miles from the head of Loch Lomond we stopped to walk to the Falls of Falloch, not as spectacular as other falls we have seen in Scotland but a pleasant walk along the bank of the winding river.

At the head of Loch Lomond the cliffs almost reach the water’s edge and they probably did before around 17 miles of road was carved into them, so although it is a two lane road it takes a great deal of care to avoid an oncoming bus or truck. All along the road are signs indicating winding road for a mile or so but as the whole distance is winding we wondered why they were there, also approaching bends there were signs advising reduce speed or slow down but as at times we were only travelling at 20 mph we asked “how slow do they want us to go?”

We eventually reached a wider section of the loch road which meant we were unlikely to meet a wide vehicle protruding over the centre line, travelling a few miles we saw a Youth Hostel sign which was sooner than we expected, driving up a lane through woods we arrived at the hostel, a mansion not quiet as large as Carbisdale Castle but still an impressive building and it is claimed to be built on the site of Robert the Bruce’s hunting lodge. The house is classed as a pseudo-castle and was built in 1865. Another grand youth hostel, though we still prefer the smaller ones as the large hostels tend to be rather impersonal.

Tomorrow we continue our travels south, towards the English border.