NOT many people speeding down the A82 through Glencoe give a savage gash, high on the flanks of Aonach Dubh, more than a passing glance, if indeed they see it at all. Yet this unattractive slit in the otherwise solid rhyolite of the great north face of the mountain has been a place of contention in more ways than one.

Ossian's cave was immortalised, or at least the so-called works of Ossian were, by James Macpherson in 1763.

Before we ascend the shaky ''Ossian's Ladder'' leading to the cave, let me digress with some potted history. The aforesaid Macpherson was denounced as a possible fraud by the Highland Society in 1905. Indeed before this in 1792, an ardent believer of Macpherson's works, one Thomas Hill, made this clear in an article in the ''Gentleman's Magazine.''

In ''Leyden's Tour'' circa 1800, Ossian is quoted: ''The sons of the feeble hereafter will lift up the voice of Cona, and, looking up to the rocks, say 'Here Ossian dwelt'.''

If Ossian was ever in the Glen, I'm sure he would have lodged in a B&B on the valley floor as an A1 view, which is about the only thing that the cave has to recommend it, was not a cool item in those days.

In ''A Tour Through Scotland 1829,'' there is mention of Fingal and Ossian: ''The mountainous district of Benediraloch, the supposed summer abode of Fingal and the other heroes of Ossian, who in winter, it is conjectured, dwelt in the savage solitudes of Glencoe.''

The cave is first mentioned in the twelfth edition of ''Black's Guide to Scotland In 1850. . .his cave is pointed out among the rocks.'' Well, there's not much information to be had from that, is there? Another reference to the cave was published in ''Mountain Moor and Loch'' in 1884, possibly for the West Highland Railway. . .''a natural aperture about eight feet deep, which looks from below like an enormous keyhole cut in the black precipice.

''It owes its name to the tradition that Ossian was born on the banks of the Cona, a stream of which he sang with great enthusiasm. According to the folklore of Glencoe, the women of that olden time were wont to perambulate the cave and spin when following the goats.

''If this be so, they must have been more nimble than their flock, for the cave is at a giddy height in the side of a sheer precipice. A man of great daring and experience in climbing can, however, reach it; indeed, the old shepherd in the cottage lying in the valley below has been in it in his younger days.''

Well that shepherd was Nicol Marquis (not Neil as is so often quoted) and his cottage was - and still is - known as Achtriochtan. Nicol's descendants to this day live in Glencoe. Ronny Rogers, a climber and member of the Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team is one.

It has been handed down through the Marquis family that Nicol, when he made his solo ascent in the summer of 1868, left a handkerchief or a piece of rag on a sapling close to the cave entrance as proof of his ascent. This was the first recorded rock climb in Glencoe and later became known as ''Ossian's Ladder'' and is still classified as ''difficult'' (it should have a further classification of ''dangerous'').

It was not until Easter 1894 that the route was repeated by members of the Scottish Mountaineering Club; Professor J N Collie, Joseph Collier and Godfrey A Solly. Collie stated that in fact they had seen a kerchief or rag on a tree branch at the entrance, but upon interviewing Nicol, had found him taciturn and unforthcoming, probably as his native tongue was Gaelic. It is interesting to note that the SMC trio had, after climbing up to the cave in snow, moved to Ben Nevis where that season 111 inches of snow had fallen. Those were the days, my friends.

There is still one mystery regarding the cave and that is of the second ascent. It was reported by a member of a shooting party staying at a (lodge?) near Kings House that one of their group had made the climb about 1894.

Now before you all dash off to visit this undesirable hole of rising and falling damp, a word of advice. Firstly, there's nothing to see other than that A1 view I mentioned (or rather, a view of the A82) and that's something ravens and eagles see every day of the week.

The cave? Well, it's not a cave at all, just a cavity where about 150 feet of basalt dyke has dropped away leaving a sloping floor about the length of a bowling alley, but it's impressive. The climb up Ossian's Ladder to the cave should have a health warning. It's a long drop to the A82.