Haunted Glen Coe

The first day in the Highlands we left the guesthouse in Glencoe Village early in the morning to climb to the Lost Valley, where the MacDonalds of GlenCoe were killed by Campbell soldiers in what is known as the Massacre of Glencoe.

This is a 3 hours hike (round trip) through a steep and rocky path with some mild scrambling. The weather was awful (it was raining hard) and that did not help the hike but that was the only day that we could do it.  The starting point was the car park at Allt na Reigh were a bag-piper, who was trying to make some money with tourists, welcomed us. From this car park there are fabulous views of the Three Sisters (three massive spurs) that invite the hiker to go on deeper in the glen.

After crossing the River Coe  through a wooden bridge, the path became very rocky and rough, climbing up to the wooded valley between Beinn Fhada and Gearr Aonack (the first and second of the three sisters). The scenery was very impressive with great rock walls on each side.

At a certain point we had to descend a rocky rake with a steep drop (most walkers did it with their bottoms) and then cross a stream. That was the most tricky part of the hike because with that heavy rain the stream had more water than usual, rocks were very slippery and it was difficult to find the best point to go through. I was very lucky to find some unknown arms that helped me to cross the stream, I was too scared to do it by myself. Once the major obstacle was overcome, the path climbed very steep and then it descended to the famous Lost Valley, invisible from below, which was used in the past to hide stolen cattle. This valley is said to be haunted by the ghosts of the murdered Mc Donald’s. The weather again (dark and gloomy) did not help and the valley looked very . . . full of ghosts, lol. One couple of hikers that arrived with us had to leave because their dog started barking non stop.

On the way back one can avoid the rake by descending over the boulders to the left which allowed us to have more open views of the ensemble. Despite the weather, it was a nice hike but when I think again about we did, I believe that it was a little bit risky in those conditions.

My Tips :

• HI Glencoe SYHA was a great guesthouse. Female  / Male dorms, shared bathrooms and common kitchen. The breakfast was great but you need to book  it at the reception desk the night before. Price per bed was 33 GBP /night.