A Stunning Film Location
The Lochaber area has always been a favourite of film makers. Roy,
Braveheart and the Highlander series
have all used the stunning local scenery to great effect. In fact,
a scene from Highlander 3 was actually filmed in the
hotel's former function suite! The "high road" from Kinlochleven
to Glencoe was also used in the original 39 Steps
film with Robert Donate and the famous Kidnapped film
with Michael Caine as the Red Fox was shot locally too.
The blockbuster Harry Potter films have already
been filmed in Glencoe and surrounding area with the majesty of
Glencoe as the backdrop for Hogwarts Castle and the
location of Hagrid's Hut. At one point the main actors
spent several months here on location and Harry, Ron and Hermione
sightings were almost a regular occurrence!
The famous West Highland
Line was also the location of many of the famous Hogwarts Express
shots. Fans can board a real "Jacobite" steam engine in
Fort William for a day trip to Mallaig and experience the thrill
for themselves!
Glencoe also has a famous resident in the form of Sir Jimmy Saville
who is seen regularly in the area.
Children's TV sensation, Balamory was set
in Tobermory on the island of Mull and, yes, the houses
really are painted in those colours! Tobermory and Mull can be reached
by ferry either via Corren or Oban.
We're used to the jet set here at the Loch Leven Hotel as many
of the "on location" actors have either stayed, eaten
or soaked up the atmosphere in our public bar; visitors have included
Liam Neeson, Christopher Lambert, Rupert Grint and Libby MacArthur!
Our Resident Ghost
As you would expect in a hotel which dates back to the mid-seventeenth
century, tales of ghosts and spooky events abound. With an alleged
haunted room, public bar and function suite, it is amazing that
any of us can sleep at night! Although there have definitely been
some strange nocturnal goings-on (just ask Wernie – an ex-resident,
now living locally), the only spirits most of us have seen come
in bottles!
Local History
The area has a very rich history, much of it familiar to people
the world over. We include here just a few snippets. The local museums
and visitors' centres have very interesting displays and information
available if you would like to know more.
 The
1745 Rising
The historical event most closely associated with the Lochaber
area has to be the second Jacobite Rising of 1745. It was at nearly
Glenfinnan that Prince Charlie raised his standard to rally the
Clans and set out on the romantic but ill-fated quest for the crown
of his fathers. Although his dream lay shattered on the moor at
Culloden in the spring of 1746, it was undoubtedly the greatest
campaign in the history of the Highlands. The story, which started
in Lochaber, also ended here. It was among the rugged hills and
glens of this district that the fugitive Prince took refuge, protected
and sheltered by the loyal Clans until he could be smuggled over
to the Isle of Skye by Flora MacDonald, before finally reaching
the safety of France and living out his life as an exile around
Europe.
It is a humbling thought that despite the fact that so many Highlanders
were slain in battle, many more were butchered in the aftermath
of Culloden and so many were brought to ruin and lost their lands
– and with a price of £30,000 on his head (the equivalent
of a Lottery win today) – no-one betrayed their Prince.
The Appin Murder
This event was made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel
Kidnapped. A granite monument to the south of the Ballachulish
Bridge marks the spot where James of the Glen was hanged in 1752
for "... a crime of which he was not guilty".
Appin was Stewart country, and after the '45 Rising, the Stewart
lands were confiscated by the Government. Colin Campbell of Glenure
was the Government Factor in Appin and for years he had been evicting
Stewart tenants from their crofts on the more productive lands and
replacing them with Campbells.
On the day of the murder, Colin Campbell and his party crossed
the Ballachulish ferry armed with eviction orders; yet more Stewarts
were to be removed from Appin. They rode along the coast road through
Kentallen and it was here that Campbell was shot in the back by
an unknown assailant who made his escape without being seen.
At the time of the shooting James of the Glen, who had himself
been evicted from his farm in Glen Duror, was sowing oats on his
smallholding in Acharn and was the first person encountered by Campbell's
servant who had gone looking for help. As an important Campbell
had been murdered, James, an outspoken critic of the evictions and
a half-brother of the exiled chief of the Stewart clan, was arrested
to satisfy the Campbells' need for revenge. James's trial is remembered
in the Highlands as a notorious case of legal injustice. At this
time, the Campbells were the Hanoverian Government's Scottish agents.
The trial took place at Inverary before the Duke of Argyll, the
Lord Justice General in Scotland and the Chief of the Campbell clan.
The Duke chose the jury, which included 11 Campbells, and, with
no evidence of guilt produced, the inevitable result was that James
Stewart was hanged at Ballachulish on 8th November 1752. His body
was chained up and left hanging there under guard for two months
until it was reduced to bare bones and started falling apart. The
bones were then wired together again and re-hung. It was late the
following year before his bones were finally laid to rest. It is
generally accepted that the name of the real murderer was known
to the leading Stewarts of Appin, and that this secret has been
handed down through the generations. Because the outcome was that
an innocent man was allowed to hang for a murder he did not commit,
it is unlikely that this secret will ever be divulged.
The Massacre of Glencoe, 13 February 1692
This treacherous event, which is never likely to be forgotten,
is first recalled whenever the name of Glencoe is mentioned. It
was the premeditated, pre-planned annihilation of the MacDonalds
of Glencoe – connived at by those in public office as instruments
of the Government – and then the treachery under which the
attempted massacre was carried out, that caused such shockwaves
of disgust and anger throughout Scotland.
The museum in Glencoe village and the National Trust for Scotland
Visitors' Centre in the Glen have all the details for those not
familiar with this affair and the events leading up to it. The facts
record that when the corpses were counted there were only 38. With
an estimated 400 MacDonalds living in the Glen, the planned mass
annihilation obviously failed. To this day, on 13th February each
year, a band of MacDonalds gather in the shadow of the Celtic Cross
by the old Bridge of Coe in memory of those who were slaughtered
that day. The sad, ironic twist in the history of the Glen is that
a clan which had survived extinction by a Government-planned massacre
was eventually decimated in 1820 by the advent of the sheep and
the resultant clearances.
The history of Glencoe and Loch Leven spans over 5000 years. Behind
the Hotel was a shallow inland loch, now infilled with peat. This
peat has preserved the remains of posts or stilts which indicate
that people may have lived here in crannogs. (Crannogs were
houses built on stilts in shallow water.)
Alternatively,the site could have been a ritual platform, as close
by there are the remains of a chambered cairn and further on there
is a standing stone. There is evidence of an early flint factory
(Neolithic age 4 - 2000 BC) in North Ballachulish. The most significant
find (again, found in the woods beside the Hotel) is the "Ballachulish
Goddess", a wooden figurine about 4 feet in length found in the
1890s and since dated at 626 BC. The Goddess can be seen in the
Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. There are few Viking place names in
the area, but the strategic nature of the narrows in front of the
Hotel and the fertility of the surrounding areas would surely have
made it a must for the Vikings.
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