Glencoe wears its history heavily, and it is hard to ride into the glen without feeling it. In February 1692 soldiers who had been billeted with the MacDonald clan for nearly two weeks turned on their hosts in the early hours and killed nearly forty of them, on orders issued in the name of the crown. The massacre has been argued over ever since, but the glen carries the memory, and the monument and the visitor centre at the lower end are worth a quiet few minutes.
The landscape is the other half of the story. Glencoe is the remnant of an ancient volcano, collapsed into itself, then carved by glaciers into a steep, U-shaped valley with walls that rise more than nine hundred metres on either side. The Three Sisters of Bidean nam Bian hang over the road on one side, and the jagged knife-edge of the Aonach Eagach ridge runs along the other. Light changes constantly: grey and menacing when the cloud sits low, golden on a clear evening, bruised purple in autumn when the bracken has turned.
The road through the glen, the A82, is wide for a Highland road, with a smooth surface and long, flowing bends that suit a steady pace. But it is also one of the busiest roads in Scotland, with coaches, caravans and camper vans clogging it in summer, and you will need patience on a July afternoon. Go at dawn or in the evening if you want the glen to yourself. Pull in only at the proper lay-bys, because the verges are soft and the traffic is heavy, and keep an eye on the weather, since a wet road in a narrow glen is a different challenge.
Fuel is the thing to plan. The nearest reliable supply is in Fort William, about fifteen kilometres from here, so make sure you have enough before heading up the glen from the south. The small village of Glencoe at the lower end has a few places for coffee and a bite, and the hillwalkers who gather there will always be glad to talk about the weather. The midges in still, humid weather are fierce, and the rain is frequent, so waterproofs are as important as sunglasses.