Mcdonalds Faerie Glen

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Brinda

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Aug 3, 2024, 10:51:21 AM8/3/24

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The Highlands are filled with bens (mountains), glens (valleys), and lochs (lakes), most of which have several hundreds of years of stories to go with them. Clans and kings, religious leaders and Viking conquests, faeries, heroic acts, betrayals, and lots of cattle thieving make for great storytelling. Many of the tales are true, but a great deal of them are not. Even so, they are a lot of fun.

The way our guide told it, the clan chief of the MacDonalds got lost on his way to pledge his support for the new monarchs, William and Mary. (It was January, so you can imagine the weather was not at its finest.) He eventually arrived at the meeting place two days late. The bureaucrat types who were in charge of the signing said, "Oh, go on, then. Don't worry about the deadline. Just sign the thing and we'll call it good." So he made his mark then headed back to Donald territory. If you read the BBC link about it, you'll see that it was a bit more complex than that, but who am I to get in the way of good storytelling?

The next morning, 38 MacDonalds lay dead, while most of the others fled up a pass to a hidden valley. 40 more died of exposure along the way. Political careers were destroyed, the flames of the Jacobite uprisings were fanned for many years to come, and the Campbell name was forever tarnished.

According to Eddie, our driver/guide, Mr. Campbell was visiting Scotland and the Glencoe area. He and his entourage pulled into an inn run by a man whose last name was MacDonald. Much to Mr. Campbell's surprise, he was refused lodging. "Being American", said Eddie, "he sued the proprietor." The judge's last name happened to be Campbell, which could lead you to suspect he'd be prejudiced. Turns out he was, but not in the way you might think: he ruled in favor of Mr. MacDonald! Yep, the judge was biased, all right, but in favor of well known Scottish tradition. No MacDonald need ever shelter a Campbell!

My father was born in Hawick Scotland and we grew up in Houston where we were part of the Heather & Thistle Society. Glendinning is a sept of the Douglas clan so we were too small to actually have any traditions to violate, but I can certainly verify that the Scots are adamant about tradition!