A path known as the Devil's Staircase crosses the range about 6 km east of Meall Dearg. Today, as part of the West Highland Way, it is used primarily by walkers and mountain bikers travelling between Kinlochleven and Glencoe.
The Devil's Staircase was given its name by the soldiers who were part of the road building programme of General Wade, because of the difficulties of carrying building materials up that stretch of the road. Later, however, the road lived up to its name when workers building the Blackwater Dam chose to travel to the Kingshouse Hotel after they had been paid. For the workers at Kinlochleven the journey to the pub often proved to be more difficult than they realised and on the return trip, after a few drinks on a cold winter's night, the devil often ”claimed his own“.
In 1692, the path was the approach route for the (apparently delayed) troops coming from Kinlochleven to provide reinforcements for the Massacre of Glencoe.
Read more about this topic: Aonach Eagach
Famous quotes containing the words devil and/or staircase:
“Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“To be ashamed of one’s immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one’s morality.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)