The west highlands of Scotland are a snapshot of the earth’s slow riot. Brutal crags rip into the sky alongside wide verdigris valleys slashed with ice-white streams. The turf is a thin layer of skin over a stark and statuesque skeleton. I stare at the barren slopes of the Three Sisters of Glen Coe, close to perceiving the memory of trees that hangs like mist around the peaks. Folklore names this place the Glen of Weeping not for the waters springing from the hilltops but for the 17th-century massacre that saw 38 MacDonalds hunted to death in the snows. Some trick of the valley’s acoustics makes the shivering wind into a Fomorian death rattle.
Sorrow’s bloated memory chokes the glen. We men of remembrance project these thoughts here, and the feeling is as real as the ground I stand upon. Why must we hang on to these visions of flesh and blood? Our ability to forget the horrors of life is all that carries us through it. Especially here in Scotland, where the land’s heart beats so close to the surface of the earth, the stains of the past should be allowed to wash away. I want the Three Sisters embroidered with the foliage of ancient trees so that memory, too, might finally burn off in the frail sun.
I remember Glen Coe. Rainy, the day I was there. It was kind of a brooding place but very beautiful in the rain and mist. I love your photograph. It epitomizes my recollection of the beauty of the western highlands.
You know how it is, never quite know what you’re going to get when it comes to the weather.
The first sentences of these two paragraphs are stunning in their blunt, revelatory trueness.
Glen Coe is an undeniably haunted place.
i LOVE glen coe.
There is so much natural isolation and beauty in the Highlands but I find it a little sad that us tourists get to benefit from these areas that are so pristine partially because so many people were forced to emigrate.
That’s a powerful point, Nick.
It’s so strange to see this post now, as I was there, at the Three Sisters, literally two days ago, as a part of a trip to Skye… It’s a beautiful place, even now when it’s rather more brown than in your picture.
I would love to see it in the off season.
Scottish Highlands are simply mgicaal. The most beautiful place I’ve explored so far! We had planned to do a cycling trip in the Outer Hebrides but didn’t find the time to do it!! An now I see this pic and I’m like Why???
Yeah, tough break there. Though this is merely western mainland Scotland. I’m sure you’ll get there next time 😉
I have been very fortunate to visit the sisters/Glen Coe twice on vacation. The first time I went with my daughter and it was the most bright blue, sunny, cloudless day. It was just perfect except for the very cold blowing wind. The second time it looked much as the picture you have here. I think on that day, it really hit me what the meaning of this place is to so many. I have been tracing my ancestry and I’ve only been able to get back as far as knowing that we are from the Frasers of Lovat clan in the Highlands. I know that Clan had lost so much when they were taken from the highlands during the battle of Culloden. Scotland to me, is perhaps the most beautiful place on earth that I have visited.