Councillors asked to approve Savile cottage demolition

Planning officials have recommended that a Highland cottage once owned by paedophile TV presenter Jimmy Savile be demolished and replaced.

Allt-na-Reigh in Glen Coe has been repeatedly vandalised since Savile's death in his Leeds flat in 2011, and his years of exploiting hundreds of people, mostly vulnerable young women, came to light.

The property was one of a number he had owned.

Highland Council planning officers have recommended granting permission for the site to be redeveloped when councillors meet to consider the application next week.

The site's new owner is the family of Harris Aslam, boss of Kirkcaldy-based convenience stores business Greens Retail Ltd.

They have said the redevelopment of Allt-na-Reigh would include honouring another of the cottage's former owners - the celebrated Scottish climber and inventor Dr Hamish MacInnes.

Dr MacInnes, who died in 2020, invented ice axes and also a stretcher that is used by mountain rescue teams all over the world.

Outbuildings where the climber worked on his creations are to be redeveloped as an ancillary dwelling and named Hamish House.

Savile owned the cottage for about 13 years, but some have expressed disappointment that his relatively short association with the property has overshadowed its longer history.

The little house is dwarfed by the spectacular scenery including the nearby Three Sisters ridges of the 1,150m (3,773ft) mountain Biden nam Bian.

Its name, Allt-na-Reigh, roughly translates from its mangled Gaelic as "burn of the slope", a reference to the stream that rushes close by and down under a bridge on the A82.

Over the years, the cottage was on a working croft, a small farm with a few cows.

It also served as a roadman's cottage with its occupant keeping the nearby road safe for travellers.

But Allt-na-Reigh is in a sorry state today.

Graffiti covers the walls, the windows are smashed and a bicycle wheel has been thrown on to the roof.

The roof itself is damaged with tiles having been deliberately ripped off it.

Highland Council's south planning applications committee will consider the proposed redevelopment on Tuesday 18 June.

It has been proposed to demolish the existing single storey house and replace it with a new four-bedroom one-and-a-half storey house, with a two storey rear section.

The two buildings would be linked by a single storey section with a flat grass roof.

External materials to be used include natural stone walling with dark timber cladding and a grey zinc roof.

The outbuilding alteration also uses similar external finishes and retains some of the white walls.