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
Up Next in Greatest Discoveries
-
The Mystery of the Headless Man
This story has everything: war, politics, betrayal, scandal, murder and at its heart a cracking forensic science mystery. This is the story of Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat of the Highland, also known as the Fox. In the late 1660s, Simon Fraser was born in a house on the banks of a burn in th...
-
Life In The Middle Ages
What did medieval people eat? Were medieval knights jacked? Why was medieval torture so cruel? Medieval historian and co-host of the Gone Medieval Podcast Matt Lewis answers Google's most searched questions about the medieval world.
-
Ancient Adventures: Libya
Join Dan Snow on a special expedition that goes far off the beaten track of history as we venture to Libya in North Africa to explore extraordinary Greek and Roman sites, centred around one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, Cyrene.
After years of civil war and instability, History Hit...
28 Comments