Scottish History. Massacre at Glencoe. 1692

The Massacre of Glencoe (Murt Ghlinne Comhann), a notorious event in Scottish history, occurred on February 13, 1692, in the Highlands following the Jacobite uprising. An estimated 30 members and associates of the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by government troops who had been billeted with them for two weeks. The pretext for the killings was the MacDonalds’ perceived failure to promptly take an oath of allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II. The execution of the MacDonalds, who were already viewed as lawless along with other Lochaber clans, was politically motivated to make an example of a small clan with few friends but powerful enemies, particularly by the Secretary of State, Lord Stair.

Following the final defeat of organized Jacobite military resistance in 1690, William III needed a peaceful Scotland to focus resources on the Nine Years’ War. A royal proclamation offered a pardon to all chiefs who swore allegiance by January 1, 1692. MacIain of Glencoe arrived at the correct location (Fort William) on December 30, but since the local governor was unauthorized to receive the oath, he was sent to Inverary, where he finally swore allegiance on January 6, 1692, missing the formal deadline by six days. Lord Stair seized on this technicality, writing gleefully that Glencoe had not taken the oaths and that the intention was to “destroy entirely the country of Lochaber… and Glencoe.” The orders for the operation were issued and signed by King William himself, but later shifted focus specifically to the Glencoe MacDonalds.

The troops sent to carry out the massacre were two companies of the Earl of Argyll’s Regiment of Foot (mostly Campbells), led by Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, a local landowner with family connections to the MacDonalds. The soldiers were accommodated under the custom of “free quarter.” On the night of February 12, Glenlyon received clear, written orders to “fall upon the rebels, the M’Donalds of Glencoe, and put all to the sword under seventy.” The massacre began the next morning; MacIain himself was killed, though his two sons and many others managed to escape, likely because the main blocking forces under Hamilton and Duncanson arrived hours late. The death toll is estimated at around 30 people, with others escaping into the freezing mountains.

An inquiry was eventually held in 1695 following public outcry, largely driven by political rivals who sought to discredit Stair and William. The inquiry found that the legality of the original orders was not the issue, but rather that Stair and others had a case to answer for exceeding those orders and committing “Slaughter under trust” (murder after accepting hospitality). While Stair was dismissed, he eventually returned to government, and no meaningful action was taken against those involved, who later died abroad. The massacre gained lasting historical significance not because it was unique, but because it was later used as a potent anti-Williamite and anti-Union symbol of English oppression against the Highlanders, a perception that endures today.