A hoard of coins believed to have belonged to a clan chief who was murdered in the Glencoe Massacre have been discovered hidden under a fireplace.
The 17th century hoard of 36 coins included international currency, and was hidden beneath the remains of a grand stone fireplace at a site which was believed to have been a hunting lodge or feasting hall.
The site was associated with Alasdair Ruadh ‘Maclain’ MacDonald of Glencoe, clan chief from 1646-1692, who was a victim of the Glencoe Massacre along with members of his family.
The MacDonalds took part in the first Jacobite rising of 1689, and were targeted in retribution with an estimated 38 clan members slaughtered on February 13 1692, including Maclain and his wife.
Artefacts discovered at ‘the summerhouse of Maclain’ include European pottery and silver and bronze coins dating from the 1500s to 1680s, discovered during a University of Glasgow dig in August.
Currency from the reigns of Elizabeth I, James VI and I, Charles I, the Cromwellian Commonwealth, and Charles II – as well as France and the Spanish Netherlands and the Papal States – was found.
Historians believe whoever buried the coins may have been killed in the massacre, as they did not return for them.
Other finds from the structure include musket and fowling shot, a gun flint and a powder measure, as well as pottery from England, Germany and the Netherlands and the remains of a grand slab floor.
Archaeology student Lucy Ankers, who found the hoard, said: ‘As a first experience of a dig, Glencoe was amazing. I wasn’t expecting such an exciting find as one of my firsts.
‘I don’t think I will ever beat the feeling of seeing the coins peeking out of the dirt in the pot.’
The Glencoe Massacre happened during the Jacobite bid to restore a Catholic king to the throne, backed by the MacDonalds, who supported King James VII of Scotland and II of England after he fled to France.
In late January 1692, approximately 120 men from the Earl of Argyll’s Regiment of Foot arrived in Glencoe from Invergarry, led by Robert Campbell of Glenlyon.
Historians speculated the coins may have been buried on the morning of the massacre two weeks later.
Survivors ran up a side glen during a blizzard, and may have encountered the property.
‘These exciting finds give us a rare glimpse of a single, dramatic event,’ said Dr Michael Given, co-director of the University of Glasgow’s archaeological project in Glencoe.
‘Here’s what seems an ordinary rural house, but it has a grand fireplace, impressive floor slabs, and exotic pottery imported from the Netherlands and Germany. And they’ve gathered up an amazing collection of coins in a little pot and buried them under the fireplace.
‘What’s really exciting is that these coins are no later than the 1680s, so were they buried in a rush as the Massacre started first thing in the morning of February 13, 1692?
‘We know some of the survivors ran through the blizzard and escaped up the side glens, including this one.
‘Were these coins witnesses to this dramatic story? It’s a real privilege to hold in our hands these objects that were so much part of people’s lives.’
Edward Stewart, excavations director, added: ‘The scale of this structure and the wealth of artefacts uncovered within suggest this was a place where the MacDonald chiefs could entertain with feasting, gambling, hunting and libations. The discovery of this coin hoard adds an exciting dimension.
‘Ordinary and everyday finds within this structure such as spindle whorls for making thread, a pitch fork, and a dress pin, speak to the everyday lives of those who lived here, worked the land and minded the cattle, allowing us to tell their stories.’
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