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
Glen Coe shaped by the processes of glaciation during the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. Since 2017 Glen Coe has been designated as a national nature reserve (NNR), and is classified as a Category IV protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Glen Coe is also designated as a Special Area of Conservation, and the south side of the glen falls within the "Glen Etive and Glen Fyne Special Protection Area". Habitats within Glen Coe include of birch woodland, moorland and peatbogs. In the lower areas of the glen bog myrtle, cotton grass, butterwort, sundew and bladderwort are