VILLAIN or SCAPEGOAT?

If you’re ever in Glencoe – and I thoroughly recommend it – pause for refreshment at that fine inn, The Clachaig. The desk at reception has a sign declaring “No Hawkers or Campbells”. Yes, it’s a joke to amuse tourists, but it shows how the story has permeated popular imagination. One of the most infamous crimes in Scottish history is firmly laid at the feet of Clan Campbell. But the people who should be blamed rarely get a mention.

There are a few historical realities that I would like to address. Firstly, on 27 July 1689, John Graham, Viscount Dundee, led the Jacobites to a major victory over a government army at Killiecrankie, although he died in the battle, and his force of Highlanders and Irish Jacobites sustained heavy casualties.

In the August, the Jacobites were defeated at Dunkeld and dispersed at Cromdale on 1 May