The Campbells, however, seized opportunities to become a dominant force in Argyllshire by gaining royal favors, understudying law practices, and strategic marriages through various clans.

During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the Covenanter armies in Scotland were directed by Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, who attacked the last strongholds of the MacDonalds and MacDougalls.

For geographical reasons, the lands which suffered most from these incursions were those of the younger branch of the Argyll family, the Campbells of Glenorchy, whose head in the days of Charles II, became Earl of Breadalbane and Holland.

The word was suddenly brought that the MacDonalds were driving the cattle of the Campbells out of the glen, and the wedding guests almost instantly found themselves engaged in a bloody affray with the invaders.

Levies from these clans served in the Independent Companies used to suppress the Conventicles in 1678–80, and took part in the devastating Atholl raid that followed Argyll's Rising in 1685.

Two days later, secret articles appeared, canceling the agreement in the event of a Jacobite invasion and signed by all the attendees, including Breadalbane, who claimed they had been manufactured by MacDonald of Glengarry.

[11] In early October, the chiefs asked the exiled James II for permission to take the Oath unless he could mount an invasion before the deadline, a condition they knew to be impossible.

One suggestion it was driven by an internal power struggle between Protestant elements of the MacDonald clan, like Glencoe, and the Catholic minority, led by Glengarry.

[15] Although the action itself was widely condemned, there was limited sympathy for the MacDonalds; the government commander in Scotland, Thomas Livingstone, commented in a letter: "It's not that anyone thinks the thieving tribe did not deserve to be destroyed, but that it should have been done by those quartered amongst them makes a great noise.

The chief, Alexander MacIain MacDonald, 14th of Glencoe, joined the cause with 130 men, and fought through all his various campaigns until the final defeat of the Stuart cause at Battle of Culloden.

In 2018, a team of archaeologists organised by the National Trust for Scotland began surveying several areas related to the massacre, with plans to produce detailed studies of their findings.

[18] Work in the summer of 2019 focused on the settlement of Achtriachtan, at the extreme end of the glen; home to an estimated 50 people, excavations show it was rebuilt after 1692.

In January 2024, Lord Lyon King of Arms announced that it had received a petition from a New Zealand citizen to be recognized as the clan chief.

[21] The list of septs of the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe is: Culp, Henderson, Hendrie, Hendry, Henry, Johnson, Kean, Keene, Keane, MacDonald, MacGilp, MacHendrie, MacHendry, MacHenry, MacIan, MacIsaac, MacKean, McKean, McKendrick, McKern, MacKern, MacKillop, MacPhilip, Moor, Philip, Philp[22][23]