National Trust accused of 'spinning' Glencoe massacre

The National Trust for Scotland has been accused of rewriting the story of one of the Highlands' bloodiest deeds.

A new £3m visitor centre at Glencoe skates over the role of the Campbell clan in the 1692 massacre, critics say. In February that year, the debt-ridden Robert Campbell of Glenlyon led a company of the Earl of Argyll's regiment, recruited from the Campbell clans and loyal families, into Glencoe. After accepting MacDonald hospitality for two weeks, the soldiers killed an estimated 38 members of the clan.

The visitor centre, though, blames "King William's soldiers" for the attack and claims only about a dozen of the 30 men had the surname Campbell. "This seems a spin too far," said Drew McFarlane-Slack, a Glencoe councillor. "They may have been [in] uniform, but they were Campbells first and foremost."