Glen Coe around Invercoe. In 1894 Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal purchased this area and built a stately mansion, Mount Royal. In 2002 Alistair MacDonald of Glencoe made a successful eleventh-hour bid, and purchased the remaining lands of Lord Strathcona from his descendants. Alistair received unsecured loans from just six donors, and immediately set up the Glencoe Heritage Trust, a non-profit-making charitable trust, to secure the heritage of this part of Glen Coe. Glen Coe is a very popular tourist destination: partly because of its scenic qualities and historical associations, partly because it is on the main road
Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area that they ought to be designated as national parks, each with an independent planning board, in order to retain their heritage value. The four areas identified were similar to those proposed by the Ramsay Committee, and included Glen Coe-Ben Nevis-Black Mount. The government did not however choose to establish national parks and so the status of the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe area was not altered. Following the passage of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, national parks were established in the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, two of the areas identified by the Ramsay committee, however the