The geology of Glencoe is so complex and varied that I almost dare not speak of it. It is famous for being the first recognised caldera volcano and my first thought on looking around was how? It is not obvious to the lay person that this landscape is a collapsed cauldron and the geological events that have occurred since, such as the movement of the land from the southern hemisphere to the north and the numerous collisions with continents that happened along the way, have deformed the circle and made it a mangled ellipse. The subsequent ice ages have sliced a deep valley through the caldera walls, further obscuring the landscape. The Glencoe mountain resort on the very eastern edge of the caldera, is maybe not the best place to appreciate the geology. On today’s route the West Highland Way heads down the glen, following the scrape of the glacier on its slide to the sea, until the route turns to climb the Devil’s Staircase. However the top of the Devil’s Staircase lies under the peak of

Meet the Jacobites (with a bit of the tragic history of Glencoe) Jacobite hopes Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons This is a really complicated part of the history of the British Isles and although I'm paraphrasing madly here, there's quite a bit to plough through in order to get some understanding of the Jacobites and why the massacre at Glencoe was so significant.  King Henry the VIII gets a pretty bad press these days for his treatment of women. What tends to be forgotten is that he was, almost exclusively, the architect of some of the most divisive royal, religious and political events witnessed in these Isles for over two hundred years after his death.    Portrait of a young King Henry VIII circa 1515-20 Anglesey Abbey He was a second son and as a youngster he was well educated. Unlike Arthur, the first son who was destined to be King and thus was deemed to be infallible and therefore not in need of an education. Then fate lent a hand and Henry became King at the age of