Saturday, November 23, 2024

Jimmy Savile’s Glen Coe cottage to be demolished

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Highland Councillors have unanimously approved plans for the demolition of a cottage in Glen Coe that was once owned by Jimmy Savile.

The cottage at Allt Na Reigh in the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area has been repeatedly vandalised since Savile’s crimes came to light following his death in 2011.

The TV presenter was one of the most notorious paedophiles and sex offenders in UK criminal history.

The site’s new owner, the family of retail business boss Harris Aslam, have been granted planning permission to replace the property with a new home.

Plans 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 have been approved.

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

The proposed redevelopment includes 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.

The property has a long history and over the years it served as a house on a croft and a road workers’ cottage.

It is one of only six houses along a 10-mile stretch of the A82 through Glen Coe.

In a report, council officials said: “The property has been subject to vandalism and graffiti directed towards a former owner and is now in a very poor state.

“Aside from the negativity arising from the former owner, there are also very positive local associations to the property relating to the respected mountaineer who once owned the property.”

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