Archaeology excels in giving insights into the everyday lives of people in the past. It is only very occasionally that we get those spine-tingling moments when we can connect the artefacts and structures we excavate to very specific people and events – such as the massacre of Glen Coe.
One of Scotland’s most iconic landscapes, Glen Coe is famous for its dramatic mountains and the brutal slaying that took place in 1692 when government troops killed 38 members of the MacDonald clan. Many more who fled in the wintry blizzard died of exposure in the freezing mountains.
In our recent excavations at Achnacon in the glen – 16 miles south of Fort William – we discovered a pin for holding on a plaid (a piece of material used to wrap around the body), musket balls, pottery and coins. These came from what we believe is the house of MacDonald of Achnacon, the head man of the village who escaped narrowly with his life in 1692.
