Home to some of the most dramatic scenery in Scotland. The Glen Coe Massacre took place near the Visitors’ Centre at 5am on the morning of 13 February 1692 after the English King William offered to pardon all the Highland clans who had taken up arms against him in the 1689 Jacobite uprising. These included the Glen Coe MacDonalds. The pardon was conditional on their taking an oath of allegiance to him by 1 January 1692.
Bad weather and bad luck prevented the clan chief of the Glen Coe MacDonalds meeting the deadline, and the government decided to make an example of the clan. 130 government troops commanded by Captain Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon were billeted with the MacDonalds on 1 February. On 12 February the orders arrived for them to turn on their hosts at 5am the following morning, 13 February. Some 38 MacDonalds were killed by the troops, but the sound of the initial gunfire provide ample warning to most, who escaped into the winter mountains. An unknown number, perhaps twice as many as died during the actual attack and mostly women and children, subsequently died from exposure.