“On ne joue pas avec la liberté”

Despite the drama that was last Monday, it was actually a brilliant long weekend away up to Glen Coe, in the (perhaps lazily named) village of Glencoe.

Glencoe plays a pretty significant role in Scottish history as it was the place where the 1692 Glen Coe Massacre took place. In a nutshell, the ruling monarch of the time, William III, had ordered that the MacDonald clan be punished for not giving an oath of loyalty to him by a certain date. The soldiers chosen to do the punishing were from another Highland clan, the Campbell’s. Due to a Highland tradition of providing hospitality to passing travellers, the MacDonald’s had innocently invited the passing soldiers into their homes. During the night, the Campbell clan ruthlessly slaughtered all MacDonald’s under 70. Over 300 years later, this still represents a sad chapter in Highland history. The story is still emotive today - the large monument to the MacDonald clan just down the street from our B&B was full of recently placed flowers and wreaths.

Glen Coe is also home to some of the most spectacular scenery in all of Scotland. Lush valleys, lochs, forests and mountains are all within a short walk of the village, and the only tough decision we had was deciding what we should do. On the first day we took a walk amongst the former grounds of one of the founders of the Hudson Bay Company. The story goes that after years building his fortune in Canada, he had taken his Native wife back to Scotland, and had planted the forest (which consists mainly of North American trees) in order to remind her of the home she had left behind. Though as the sign said, “unfortunately, despite being such a beautiful place, she was unhappy and the couple had to return to Canada”. I thought the sign sounded a bit bitter myself.

Day two was the big walk, an eight-hour epic from Glen Coe village, past the historic Clachaig Inn (a rustic old inn that has been there forever, with very tasty home brew) and to the Lost Valley, the place where Highland cattle rustlers used to hide their coos. Somehow we managed to misread the maps and ended up not going to the Lost Valley at all, but a completely different route which actually took us up over 3000ft to Stob Coire nan Lochan, one of the Munros of the region. Regardless, the views were absolutely stunning – especially as the day was perfectly sunny and clear.

And while much of Monday was taken up with the drama of the break-in, the day was more than salvaged by the Stereolab concert that night (the tickets being something else the thief hadn’t taken, thankfully!). I’d seen the band play before a few years ago in Toronto, so I knew they were as brilliant live as they were on disc. Sadly, Mary Hansen - one of the key members of the band who sang most of the harmonies - had been killed in a road accident since then. The band had vowed not to replace her, and sure enough rather than hire another vocalist they had brought in a musician who plays the French Horn in harmony with the vocals. It was a very clever effect that worked incredibly well. Overall, the ambience of Stereolab’s music was the perfect antidote to the drama of the day.