History
The Kings House, which is thought to be one of Scotland's oldest licensed inns, was originally built in the 17th century. It was sited at the head of Glen Coe for travellers crossing Rannoch Moor. In the 18th century, the strategic Wade road crossed the River Etive at this point by the inn. The military route, which was built by the British army during the Jacobite rising, then headed towards Glen Coe before ascending the Devil's Staircase to Kinlochleven. Parts of the former military route are now used as the West Highland Way.
In late 1746, the buildings became barracks for Crown forces under the command of the Duke of Cumberland . The inn was used as a base by troops conducting operations to crush or capture any remaining Jacobites in the western Highlands.
By the late 18th century, the building had reverted to its original use as a coaching inn serving travellers that came from Ballachulish to Loch Lomond via Tyndrum. In 1803, the inn was visited by Dorothy Wordsworth, the sister of Romantic poet William Wordsworth, who wrote disparagingly:
Never did I see such a miserable, such wretched place, – long rooms with ranges of beds, no other furniture except benches, or perhaps one or two crazy chairs, the floors far dirtier than an ordinary house could be if it were never washed. With length of time the fire was kindled and after another hour of waiting, supper came, a shoulder of mutton so hard that it was impossible to chew the little flesh that might have been scraped off the bones.
However 100 years later, standards had improved dramatically as Dundee MP Alexander Wilkie recorded a pleasant stay:
Arriving at Kings House Inn I have a hearty welcome. Tea, my clothes and shoes dried. Next morning after a walk round I go in for breakfast. What shall I have? – grapefruit? What! can I have grapefruit in Kings House; of course I can; and so I have grapefruit, and porridge and cream, and fish, and everything just like a west end city hotel. I tell you I am well looked after and at a charge so moderate that I am almost ashamed of my appetite.
In 1910, the first visitors with motor vehicles began to come Glen Coe when the stone-shod road was upgraded with tarmac.
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