Before the snow of this winter fades from our memories it is a moment to remember what John Buchan called "one of the greatest exploits in the history of British arms."
The Marquis of Montrose, a brilliant, romantic commander of the Scottish highlanders fighting for King Charles I in the civil war, was trapped in the Great Glen in Scotland in the bitter winter of 1644. There were three armies hemming him in. The largest from the south, where Fort William now stands, the second in Inverness in the north and the third, on the eastern side, was guarding the mountain passes. To the west lay Ben Nevis, unguarded but regarded as impassable.
Argyll, leader of the Campbell clan, advancing from the south expected Montrose to hunker down to survive in the freezing swirling snow. Instead, realising his perilous position, Montrose persuaded some shepherds of the Macdonald clan to lead the army to safety through the pathless wastes round Ben Nevis. The snow covered the army's tracks so when the trap was sprung Montrose had vanished. To avoid freezing to death the army had force marched for two days and nights and reached a mountainside above the Campbell camp at Inverlochy. That February morning the last of their supplies, some bags of oats, were made into a kind of porridge by pounding them with snow, and the highlanders were ready for battle. With a trumpet blast they swept down on the Campbells; 1,500 died and Argyll escaped in his boat.