The view looking east from the top of the Devil’s staircase is a vast panorama of mountains and valley.   I did say that from this point is might be possible to gather a better picture of the caldera and maybe, if you have a working knowledge of geology, it is possible to pick out the tell-tale features of a collapsed volcanic ring. However I can only take my hat off to the Victorian pioneers who came to this conclusion, when it would have been a lot easier to explain the whole process at some other site that hadn’t experienced further volcanic activity and then had glaciers crashing through the entire landscape, thereby obscuring the original structures.   Although this is the point where the original fracture occurred that caused the volcano, this is no longer the centre of the caldera, we are in fact on the northern edge. Looking east, the glacier crashed through the walls, flattening the caldera.  It rises up above the Glencoe mountain resort and then heads to Stob Dubh to the sou

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

The Gaelic poet Duncan Ban Macintyre was born and raised on the southern side of Loch Tulla in  Druim Liaghart .    When he was young he courted the daughter of the Landlord of the Inveroran Hotel,  Màiri bhàn òg.  In his poems he observed the busy lives of the villagers; farming, hunting, fishing and weaving; the social life of the village, of fairs, music and song. His works captured the essence of  a living vibrant community. Coming down to Inveroran Inn On a bright sunny day such as today it would be easy to image that this place could be busy with people going about their business, more difficult to understand how they would cope in the depths of winter. But people did subsist, although admittedly the living was difficult. The Highlands was thronged with crofters. For the land owners there were better ways to make money than rely on the meagre rents of their tenants and (especially after the '45 Jacobite rebellion) ridding the land of the quarrelsome Jacobites and farming shee

Scotland’s first long distance path is one of the most popular long-distance walks in the world. So what draws over 30,000 people each year to walk the West Highland Way?   Is it the spectacular scenery? - which is practically continuous from the start at Milngavie, a suburb to the north of Glasgow to the end at Fort William, nestling under the shadow of Ben Nevis the highest mountain in the British Isles.    Glencoe Or is it history? From the Romans who built the Antonine Wall, part of which can be traced through Milngavie. Or passing by a neolithic monument of standing stones at Drumgoyach? - the significance of which is lost in time. Or walking in the steps of Rob Roy and Robert the Bruce? Or crossing Glencoe? - the setting for the vicious slaughter of members of the clan MacDonald. Maybe looking across to Lochan Lunn Da Bhra? -  where on a tiny island Macbeth was alleged to reside (a Scottish King who should be contacting his lawyers about the lack of historical accuracy in the Sha