HIGHLANDS planning officials have recommended a cottage once owned by paedophile TV presenter Jimmy Savile is to be demolished.
The cottage, Allt-na-Reigh, is located in the heart of Glen Coe and was one of many properties once owned by Savile. It has been repeatedly vandalised since his death in 2011.
Highland Council planning officers have recommended granting permission for the derelict building to be destroyed and the site redeveloped.
Councillors will meet to consider the application next week, on June 18.
Savile owned the cottage from 1998 until his death and some locals have expressed their disappointment that the disgraced TV presenter’s short association with the building has overshadowed its long history.
The building's new owners plan to redevelop the cottage to honour another one of its past occupants, Dr Hamish MacInnes, a famous Scottish mountaineer and inventor.
Dr MacInnes, who died in 2020, was the inventor of ice axes and the stretcher that is used by mountain rescue teams all over the world still to this day.
Under the proposals, the outbuildings would be redeveloped and named Hamish House, to celebrate the late doctor and once-resident of Allt-na-Reigh.
The little cottage which is tucked into the hillside beside the A82 overlooks the spectacular Three Sisters ridges of the mountain Bidean nam Bian.
It now belongs to the family of Harris Aslam, who is the boss of the Kirkcaldy-based convenience stores firm Greens Retail Ltd.
Allt-na-Reigh translates roughly to the Burn of the Shieling or Ground at the Foot of the Mountain in Gaelic.
The cottage has been covered in graffiti since the decades of exploitation of young venerable women by Savile came to light after his death.
The Dame Janet Smith review, which was published in 2016, identified 72 victims of Savile in connection with his work as a presenter at the BBC.
