The Devil's Staircase, Glencoe, Highlands, Scotland

The Devil's Staircase

This picture of The Devil's Staircase is for sale.

It comes as a canvas (from £126.13), a framed print (from £131.00), a framed mounted print (from £135.55) or an acrylic (from £164.34).

Why not take a look at my other pictures from the West Highland Way.

And why not take a look at my other pictures of Glen Coe.

Looking across to Rannoch Moor from the top of the Devil's Staircase, Glencoe, on the morning of New Year's Day, 2020.

The Devil's Staircase isn't a particularly long or difficult climb. It had long been a drove road across the bealach between Stob Mhic Mhartuin and Beinn Bheag. The soldiers who committed the Glencoe Massacre entered the Glen by this route. It was formalised into a proper road by General William Caulfield following the Battle of Culloden, as part of a military road between Fort William and Stirling - both garrison towns for the British military. Today, from Tyndrum to Fort William, Caulfield's road forms the basis of the West Highland Way

It got its name from the men who built the nearby Blackwater Dam. Come pay day, many would repair to the nearest hostelry - the Kingshouse in Glencoe, a mile or so east of the foot of the Staircase - and drink away their earnings. Returning, drunk, in the dark, over the Devil's Staircase, many men lost their footing and their lives.