Join historian Dan Snow as he journeys to Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands to examine an astonishing new archaeological discovery: a hoard of coins likely hidden during one of the most shocking episodes in British history - the Glencoe Massacre.
At 5am on 13th February 1692, 38 members of the Clan MacDonald were brutally murdered by Scottish government troops. Many of those that managed to flee over the mountains also perished in the freezing conditions. This event was especially horrifying because the MacDonalds of Glencoe had played host to their assailants for nearly two weeks before the surprise attack. It was an assault on their Highland hospitality.
Dan meets archaeologists from the University of Glasgow and National Trust for Scotland, who are currently excavating the remains of settlements in Glencoe, to try to understand what life was like here for the MacDonalds and why this massacre took place. Was it a revenge attack instigated by clan rivalry? Or, with a new monarch on the throne of England and Scotland, King William III, were there greater forces at play? The discovery of a hidden hoard of coins speaks volumes about the Macdonalds' response to their attackers' presence in Glencoe.
If you want to find out even more about this tragic event, listen to Dan Snow's History Hit podcast 'The Glencoe Massacre' (ad free for all our subscribers): https://podfollow.com/dan-snows-history-hit/
The University of Glasgow has a very useful website with information about the excavations in Glencoe: https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_1127146_en.html
The National Trust for Scotland website is full of information on Glencoe, including their reconstructed Turf House: https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/glencoe
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