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 The View from the Clachaig Inn |
Glencoe is the village lying at the foot of Glen Coe where the River Coe flows into Loch Leven. The original settlement here was at Invercoe, on the north bank of the river. This was one of the scattered villages of the MacDonalds at the time of the Glencoe Massacre in 1692: more information about this notorious incident can be found on our Glen Coe page.
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By the mid 1700s there was a ferry operating across Loch Leven from Invercoe to Callert House on the north shore. From there a path led across the shoulder of Mam na Gualainn at a height of 475m or 1560ft before dropping to the line of the old military road from what is now Kinlochleven to Fort William, a route today used by the West Highland Way. On the south shore a new road followed the north bank of the River Coe up Glen Coe to Kingshouse on the edge of Rannoch Moor.
 The Glencoe Hotel |
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By 1850 the settlement at the mouth of the River Coe was generally known as Glencoe, and steamers from Glasgow called at the pier here. In the 1930s a "new" road along Glen Coe was built along the south side of the river in the lower glen, bypassing Glencoe.
This process was effectively completed when the Ballachulish Ferry was replaced by the bridge in 1975 and drivers no longer diverted through Glencoe around the head of Loch Leven at Kinlochleven to avoid the ferry queues. Glencoe's response was to spread towards the new main road, and the Glencoe Hotel was built in 1939 on what is now the A82.
Opposite it is the headquarters of Glencoe Mountain Rescue. This attractive white-harled building carries a plaque dedicated to the memory of Graham Flatters, 1957-1996, "who loved to wander in wild places".
What you find in Glencoe today is a main settlement stretching from the A82 along the shore of Loch Leven to the north east. The old road along the north bank of the river still exists, and is still narrow and winding. Following it along the lower slopes of Sgorr na Ciche, the Pap of Glencoe, brings you first to the Glencoe Youth Hostel, and then to the Clachaig Inn, a well know provider of food, drink and accommodation to generations of climbers and travellers.
East of the Clachaig Inn the old road meets the A82. Near to here stood the National Trust for Scotland Visitor Centre until it was demolished in 2002. Its larger and more environmentally sensitive replacement lies to the south-west of the A82 back towards the main settlement of Glencoe.
