Glen Coe: Scotland’s Most Dramatic Glen — the Massacre, the Three Sisters & the Mountains

The Crafts and Things shop and café in Glencoe village. — Glencoe village at the foot of the glen — the gateway to the most dramatic mountain scenery in Scotland.

Overview — the honest take

Glen Coe is, for many people, the Scottish Highland glen: a deep, steep-sided valley of towering peaks and plunging waterfalls, carved by ice and drowned in history. The A82 threads right through the middle of it, so even a drive is unforgettable — but stop, walk, and stay a night, and it gets under your skin. It’s a place of staggering beauty and genuine sadness, forever marked by the Massacre of 1692. We’ve stayed twice and it never loses its grip.

The moody moor and cloud-topped mountains of Glen Coe seen from the motorhome cab. — The view from the van — Glen Coe and Rannoch Moor under a heavy sky, exactly as we found it.

Where it is

Glen Coe runs west from Rannoch Moor down to Loch Leven and Glencoe village, in Lochaber, on the main A82 between Tyndrum and Fort William. Kinlochleven is just round the loch, and Glen Nevis and Fort William are a short run north. Our guide to the approach is on the Over Rannoch Moor to Glen Coe page.

The Massacre of Glencoe, 1692

Glen Coe’s name is bound forever to one terrible night. In the early hours of 13 February 1692, government soldiers — who had been billeted as guests among the MacDonalds of Glencoe for nearly a fortnight, eating their food and sharing their fire — turned on their hosts and killed around 38 people, with many more, including women and children, dying of exposure as they fled into the winter mountains. The clan’s crime was that their chief, MacIain, had been a few days late in swearing allegiance to the new king, William of Orange. Because the killers had abused the hospitality of the house, it became known as the “Murder under Trust,” a particularly deep dishonour in Highland eyes — and Glen Coe has been called the “Glen of Weeping” ever since. It’s a sobering thing to carry with you as you walk the glen.

The mountains — the Three Sisters & Buachaille Etive Mòr

The scenery is simply colossal. On the south side rise the Three Sisters — the three great buttresses of Bidean nam Bian, the highest mountain in the old county of Argyll — while the glen’s eastern gateway is guarded by the perfect pyramid of Buachaille Etive Mòr, “the Great Herdsman,” one of the most photographed mountains in Britain. Above the north side runs the Aonach Eagach, a knife-edge ridge that’s one of the finest — and most serious — ridge walks on the mainland. This is a spiritual home of Scottish mountaineering, and it looks it.

Walks in the glen

You don’t have to be a climber to feel it. The classic outing is the Lost Valley (Coire Gabhail) — a hidden hanging valley, reached by a rough but wonderful walk up between the Three Sisters, where the MacDonalds once drove their (often stolen) cattle out of sight. Gentler options include the woodland stroll to Signal Rock — said to be where the signal for the massacre was given — and the trails around the excellent National Trust for Scotland visitor centre, which tells the glen’s natural and human story. For the fit, the Pap of Glencoe above the village gives a superb view down Loch Leven.

Glencoe village, Kingshouse & Glen Etive

Crafts and Things at Glencoe village. — Crafts & Things at Glencoe — a good coffee-and-browse stop by the glen.

At the west end, on Loch Leven, sits Glencoe village, with the thatched Glencoe Folk Museum and the well-known Crafts & Things shop and café. Halfway up the glen, the legendary Clachaig Inn has warmed generations of soaked walkers and climbers. And at the eastern end, out on Rannoch Moor, stands the historic Kings House Hotel — from where the single-track road down Glen Etive (of Skyfall fame) is one of the great Highland detours.

Staying here

Motorhomes and campervans lined up at a moorland car park above Glen Coe as golden light breaks over the hills. — Parked up for the night on the moor — vans lined along the edge as the light broke over the Black Mount.

Glen Coe is a wonderful place to base up, and we’ve done it twice — once in fine weather, and once through a mega stormy night when the wind came screaming down off the mountains and rocked the van till dawn. That’s the deal with a place this wild: it’s breathtaking, but the weather here does exactly what it wants, and a night pinned down by a Glen Coe gale is an experience in itself. There are good campsites at the village end and around Loch Leven, and the whole area is a paradise for walkers and climbers. Wherever you stay, try to catch the glen at first light on a calm morning — the mist lifting off the tops is something you don’t forget.

Nearby

Kinlochleven — sleep right on Loch Leven, just round the water.
Over Rannoch Moor to Glen Coe — the spectacular drive into the glen from the south.
Glen Nevis & Fort William — Ben Nevis and the Steall Falls walk, to the north.

Sources

National Trust for Scotland — Glencoe (the glen, the massacre, the walks).
On 1692: John Prebble, Glencoe: The Story of the Massacre (1966).
Everything first-hand is from our own two stays in Glen Coe.