{"id":741497,"date":"2026-08-18T04:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T04:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/741497\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T04:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T04:16:12","slug":"tears-of-widow-of-glencoe-revealed-by-restoration-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/741497\/","title":{"rendered":"Tears of &#8216;Widow of Glencoe&#8217; revealed by restoration work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A painting depicting the aftermath of the Massacre of Glencoe has been restored by Dundee-based conservators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Almost 40 members of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed in February 1692 after soldiers were ordered to attack them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The painting, known as the Widow of Glencoe, shows a grieving woman standing next to the body of a man at the foot of a mountain with snow covering the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Catriona Davidson, of Glencoe Folk Museum, said the &#8220;incredible&#8221; restoration of its painting had removed centuries of dirt &#8211; and revealed fine details, including a tear on the woman&#8217;s cheek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Generations of a family in Luxemburg had owned the 19th Century artwork before they donated it to Glencoe Folk Museum in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The painting is not signed and the only clue to who painted it is a motif called a monogram. Glencoe Folk Museum said it was believed the painter may have been an artist called James Goldingham.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There is a record of the artwork being exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1881.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Conservators Egan, Matthews &amp; Rose completed the restoration as part of a major revamp of the museum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Davidson told BBC Scotland News: &#8220;The detail they have pulled out of the painting is just incredible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The snow is a pure white it wasn&#8217;t before. There is a tear on the woman&#8217;s face that you couldn&#8217;t really see before. It&#8217;s an incredible transformation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A spokesperson added that further research would be done to confirm the artist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Glencoe Folk Museum, which is housed inside two heather-thatched cottages in Lochaber, was set up more than 50 years ago by local women who stood in front of bulldozers to save the cottages from demolition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It is home to 6,000 artefacts and its collection includes Jacobite relics and memorabilia from the two World Wars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Work on a \u00a33m revamp started last month and the new-look museum is set to open next spring.<\/p>\n<p>Exiled king<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An estimated 38 people were killed in the Massacre of Glencoe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The MacDonalds were targeted because of their support for the exiled King James VII of Scotland, who was also James II of England before he was deposed in 1688.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The clan backed the restoration of the Stuart dynasty to the British throne and had taken part in the first Jacobite Rising of 1689.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Historians say they were late delivering an oath of allegiance to the Protestant King William III, and had been branded as rebels by the secretary of Scotland, Sir John Dalrymple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A painting depicting the aftermath of the Massacre of Glencoe has been restored by Dundee-based conservators. Almost 40&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,245289,245290,1120,96,245291,245287,245288,15222,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-741497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-catriona-davidson","tag-clan-macdonald-of-glencoe","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-glencoe","tag-glencoe-folk-museum","tag-massacre-of-glencoe","tag-restoration","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}