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Museum unveils newly restored Widow of Glencoe painting

News imageEgan, Matthews & Rose, 2025 A close up of the painting showing a woman's face. She looks to be stricken by grief and her eyes are looking upwards and she has tears on her cheeks. A conservator's brush-like tool lies on a restored section of the painting.Egan, Matthews & Rose, 2025
The painting known as the Widow of Glencoe was donated to Glencoe Folk Museum in 2023

A painting depicting the aftermath of the Massacre of Glencoe has been restored by Dundee-based conservators.

Almost 40 members of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed in February 1692 after soldiers were ordered to attack them.

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.

Generations of the same family had owned the 19th Century artwork before it was donated to Glencoe Folk Museum in 2023.

Conservators Egan, Matthews & Rose completed the restoration as part of a major revamp of the museum.

News imageEgan, Matthews & Rose, 2025 The painting shows a woman, stricken by grief, standing barefoot in snow at the foot of a mountain. Next to her lies a man's body, partially covered in snow. The image on the right is brighter than the one on the left.Egan, Matthews & Rose, 2025
The museum said the Dundee conservators had carried out "incredible restoration work"

The painting is not signed and the only clue to who they might be is a motif called a monogram. Glencoe Folk Museum said it was believed the painter may have been an artist called James Goldingham.

There is a record of the artwork being exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1881.

The museum said Egan, Matthews & Rose had carried out "incredible restoration work".

A spokesperson added that further research would be done to confirm the artist.

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.

It is home to 6,000 artefacts and its collection includes Jacobite relics and memorabilia from the two World Wars.

Work on a £3m revamp started last month and the new-look museum is set to open next spring.

Exiled king

An estimated 38 people were killed in the Massacre of Glencoe.

The MacDonalds were targeted because of their support for the exiled King James VII of Scotland and II of England.

The clan backed the restoration of the Stuart dynasty to the British throne and had taken part in the first Jacobite Rising of 1689.

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.