The Massacre of Glencoe

King William wanted to make sure that the Jacobite chiefs would obey him, so he sent his soldiers into the Highlands to keep an eye on them. These soldiers built Fort William right in the middle of Lochaber.

Then King William told the Jacobite chiefs they had to make a promise to obey him. He gave them until 30 December 1691 to make their promises or else they would be punished.

MacIain, the old chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe, waited until the very last day before he went to make his promise at Fort William. When he got there he was told he could only make his promise in front of the Sheriff of Argyll at Inveraray.

It took the old man five days to walk there through blizzards and very deep snow. When he reached Inveraray MacIain explained why he was late and made his promise to obey King William.

Glencoe Massacre by Peter Jackson After that he thought everything would be fine. He was wrong. King William's government decided to make an example of the MacDonalds by killing the whole clan. They made careful plans. They sent so many soldiers to Fort William that it did not have room for all of them. Local people had to give these extra soldiers beds. 120 men, under the command of Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, made their way to Glencoe, under the pretence of collecting tax in arrears. They persuaded MacIain to give them shelter, producing military documents as proof. The MacDonalds of Glencoe did not know that these soldiers would be used to kill them. Indeed, nobody knew about the plans until the very last minute.

A letter from Major Duncanson gave the soldiers in Glencoe orders to murder the families they were staying with at five o'clock in the morning of 13 February 1692. They thought the MacDonalds would be in their beds so it would be easy to kill them all. Extra soldiers from Fort William were sent to block the roads out of Glencoe to make sure that nobody could escape.

Their plan did not work. A terrible blizzard stopped the soldiers from Fort William reaching Glencoe in time. The soldiers in Glencoe got lost in the snow, so many MacDonalds escaped and hid in the mountains. 38 people were killed but about 450 escaped.

The Aftermath

The massacre of Glencoe reflected badly against the reigning king, William III, as it appeared to have been a decision resulting from his command. It was decided, three years after the incident that it had nothing to do with the King and the matter quietened. In the meantime, the MacDonalds were almost destroyed, returning to their homes poverty-stricken. Due to the clan's conduct in the aftermath, the King chose to compensate the surviving family members.