<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/r00103891.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5810" title="Exif_JPEG_PICTURE" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/r00103891.jpg?w=294" alt="" width="294" height="300" /></a>The English get a lot of stick, often deservedly, for the way we’ve been beastly to our Scottish neighbours over the centuries (though in all  fairness one should say that in recent times they have sent us Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, so perhaps they’ve had their own back).

Hanging around the Highlands for a while, as I did last week, you can’t help but be struck by how beastly the Scots of old could be to one another from time to time.

Here’s an often-missed example of that which lies south of Invergarry by the road from Inverness to Fort William, along the beautiful <a class="zem_slink" title="Great Glen" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Glen">Great Glen</a>. It’s called <a href="http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_photograph.jsp?item_id=4665" target="_blank">the Well of the Seven Heads</a>. And yes, if you look at the photo here you can see seven heads stuck on top of the monument to the event which is by the side of the road, in front of a very friendly local store, overlooking the loch.

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<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/r0010386.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5803" title="Exif_JPEG_PICTURE" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/r0010386.jpg?w=225" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>The story goes back to 1663 when two sons of the Chief of MacDonnel, the local warlord with a castle at Invergarry, were murdered during a quarrel with an uncle and six sons. Family arguments could turn nasty in those days it seems.

The clan chief passed summary judgement and sent thirty of his men to the uncle’s home to kill all seven involved. They were duly beheaded then, before being presented to the chief at the castle down the road, washed in the spring by the loch. Bad form to take home severed heads dirty I imagine.

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The obelisk tells the story in several languages. And as the nice lady in the shop told me, you can walk down some steps to see the well where the heads were supposedly washed below. Three and a half centuries on I didn’t see anyone refilling their water bottles here.

Further on to the west you get to the scene of yet another infamous Highland atrocity, the dreadful <a class="zem_slink" title="Massacre of Glencoe" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Glencoe">Glencoe massacre</a>, orchestrated in part from England but mainly by a dubious Scottish aristocrat John Dalrymple as a way of getting revenge against the Highlanders he hated. Dalrymple walked away scot-free, if you’ll pardon the expression. Thirty eight MacDonalds were murdered by the soldiers who had been living as their guests under the guise of Highland hospitality.

It’s strange to think of such brutality in gorgeous surroundings such as this. Here's the view of Loch Oich from the well, the last the errant MacDonnels saw of their beloved Highlands.

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You can 'visit' in Google Maps, below.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&amp;amp;source=embed&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;geocode=&amp;amp;q=invergarry&amp;amp;sll=57.056556,-5.129242&amp;amp;sspn=0.044015,0.069952&amp;amp;gl=uk&amp;amp;ie=UTF8&amp;amp;hq=&amp;amp;hnear=Invergarry,+Highland,+United+Kingdom&amp;amp;t=h&amp;amp;layer=c&amp;amp;cbll=57.052107,-4.796587&amp;amp;panoid=nbeVRqY0G5wDhX8EfYTo2g&amp;amp;cbp=12,157.67,,0,15.16&amp;amp;ll=57.068923,-4.800793&amp;amp;spn=0.043834,0.069952&amp;amp;z=14&amp;amp;output=svembed&amp;w=425&amp;h=350]