We reached Fort William in the Scottish Highlands after two overnight stops from London; the first at Kendal in the Lakes District in northern England and the second in the Scottish village of Taynuilt in Argyll District. Fort William is an ideal place to spend a few days – Ben Nevis keeps watch over the town, and there are some great sights close by. We spent Saturday driving along the shore of Loch Ness to Inverness, stopping along the way to see the ruins of Urquhart Castle perched above the water. We made a picnic lunch in an Inverness park and saw a newly married bride and her kilt-clad groom emerge from a church to the strains of loud, melodious bagpipe music. There was no mistaking that we were now in Scotland.
On Sunday we drove through grand, dramatic Glen Coe to the south-east of Fort William, and the smaller but equally impressive Glen Etive. Many hikers and campers were out and about enjoying the sunshine and spectacular scenery. We made a detour around Loch Leven and came across a hard-to-beat picnic spot overlooking the Loch towards the peaks of Glen Coe.
It was all sweetness and light on Sunday, but this place was the site of one of the darker chapters in Scottish history – the infamous February 1692 Massacre of Glencoe. The MacDonald clan had been tardy in swearing allegiance to the English King who, miffed, decided that they needed to be taught a lesson. The Campbells were enlisted to do the dirty deed, and on the morning of the 13th, after enjoying the MacDonald’s hospitality, turned on their hosts after breakfast, murdering 38 and ultimately causing the deaths of others who fled into the wintry hills of Glen Coe. Charming. I wonder how anyone with the surname Campbell fares finding a B&B in these parts today.
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