The claim
Deep in Glen Coe below Clachaig Gully, the Clachaig Inn has long been the pub of choice for Highland climbers and walkers, with origins said to reach back several centuries. A sign reading 'No hawkers or Campbells' nods to the 1692 massacre. Beneath Bidean nam Bian and the Aonach Eagach ridge, it offers a bar, food and rooms after a day on the hills.
What the records show
The inn's own claim is a length of time rather than a century: its about page says Clachaig has been a source of accommodation and hospitality to travellers for over three hundred years, which the ranking sorts from 1726. The 16th century came from Wikipedia, unsourced, and the inn does not repeat it, so the row now claims what the house claims. The same page produces the earliest records traced here, both transcribed by the inn from the statutory registers: the District of Glencoe and Appin marriage register for 13 August 1866 calls Janet Maclennan an innkeeper at Clachaig, and the register of births has her daughter born at Clachaig on 17 February 1864. Nothing documents the house three hundred years back, which keeps the grade at C. The national designations have now been searched rather than left open, and they are empty here: Historic Environment Scotland holds nothing at all within half a kilometre of the inn — no listed building, no scheduled monument, no inventory site — so there is no register description to date these walls, and the next thing to look for is an estate or licensing record rather than a designation. The Daynes family has run it since 1984.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1726 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| 1866 | First record of a drinking house here | CAMRA |
What to look for inside
- 'No hawkers or Campbells' sign recalling the Massacre of Glencoe
- Base for climbers on Bidean nam Bian and the Aonach Eagach
Visiting
Clachaig Inn is in Glencoe, Scotland, at Glencoe, Ballachulish, Highland. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clachaig_Inn
- camra.org.uk/pubs/clachaig-inn-glencoe-176808
- clachaig.com/about-clachaig-inn/
- inspire.hes.scot/arcgis/rest/services/HES/HES_Designations/MapServer/0/query?where=1%3D1&geometry=-5.0685%2C56.6600%2C-5.0504%2C56.6690&geometryType=esriGeometryEnvelope&inSR=4326&spatialRel=esriSpatialRelIntersects&outFields=DES_REF%2CDES_TITLE%2CCATEGORY&returnGeometry=false&f=html
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/538353
- find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC241100
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
