The Road Across the Moor
For centuries, the way across Rannoch Moor has run past this spot. After the rising of 1745 the government drove a military road through the Highlands, and Caulfeild's bridge, beside the Kingshouse, was built in 1751-52. The inn itself is generally dated to around 1750, built to shelter troops and travellers, and it takes its name from its use as barracks by government soldiers in the years after the rising. It is one of Scotland's oldest licensed inns, and the original building still stands at the heart of the hotel today.
The road brought everyone with business in the Highlands. When Dorothy Wordsworth stopped here in 1803, she found the house full of "drovers, carriers, horsemen, travellers". The same route is now part of the West Highland Way, which passes the cottage before climbing the Devil's Staircase, at 550 metres the highest point of the whole 96-mile trail.
Scotland's First Commercial Ski Area
In the 1950s the mountain in front of the cottage found a new purpose. Philip Rankin, a former RAF pilot, built the first fixed ski tow on Meall a'Bhuiridh in the summer of 1955, and it opened to the public in February 1956 as the country's first commercial ski area, known as White Corries. Today it is Glencoe Mountain Resort, a mile and a half from the cottage.
The Fleming Connection
This humble cottage has historical connections beyond those of a simple Dorran dwelling. It belonged to the Fleming family until 1992, when Robin Fleming (Ian Fleming's cousin) sold it. Robin's father Philip, Ian's uncle, owned the estate and helped fund Scotland's first ski lift on Meall a'Bhuiridh, which you can see clearly from the living room window. The Fleming family built the cottage as a base, and by the 1960s it was home to engineers working on the ski lift. In the Bond novel You Only Live Twice, Ian Fleming revealed that James Bond's father was a Scotsman from Glencoe. The Skyfall film then brought Bond back to the area, filming on the A82 and down Glen Etive, a few minutes from Tigh na Coille. Maybe Bond will be back in his father's country one day.