Since the death of paedophile Jimmy Savile nearly 14 years ago, there has been a campaign to demolish his former house at Allt-na-Reigh in Glen Coe.
The disgraced TV presenter’s cottage has long been considered a “blot” on the landscape in what is one of Scotland’s most visited Highland glens.
After a fire at a historic property this month, developer and current owner Harris Aslam has said its demolition will take place “as soon as possible”.
But what is the history of the house and its previous owners, and what does the future hold?
A history of Allt na Reigh and its owners
The house has a long history of notable residents and innovative uses.
It has served as both a croft house and a road workers’ cottage and has been part of a large estate.
It is one of only six houses along a 10-mile stretch of the A82 through Glen Coe and is the closest property to the roadside.
Given its location in the glen, it may have been the site of the MacDonalds of Glencoe’s summer pastures before the Clearances.
From at least the early 20th century, the property was part of the Glencoe Estate, owned by Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal.
In the early 1900s, a stalker employed by Glencoe Estate occupied the house and in the 1920s, a man named Rob Downie lived there until he retired in the 1960s.
During the 1930s, climbers frequently stayed in various outbuildings, including one at Allt-na-Reigh known as “Downie’s Barn”.
In the same decade, the estate was put up for sale, with the largest portion acquired by the National Trust for Scotland.
Allt-na-Reigh was not included in the sale and was first sold to the Lambert family, then to Frances Kitson, who lived in Sussex.
In 1961, the house and associated land were sold for £1,000 to mountaineer, adventurer and writer Hamish MacInnes.
Mr MacInnes, known as the “father of modern mountain rescue in Scotland,” who lived there until 1987.
In 1975, the National Trust for Scotland secured the right of first refusal should Allt-na-Reigh ever be put on the market.
MacInnes sold the house and land in 1987 to a couple from Edinburgh who used it as a holiday home.
NTS declined to exercise its right to buy the property.
It was in 1998i that the property was sold to its most infamous owner, Jimmy Savile, who owned it until his death in 2011.
Later, MacInnes said he had been “hoodwinked” by Savile over the sale of the house.
In May 2013, Ross Harper Auctioneers listed the house for sale at a guide price of £100,000.
The auctioneers, who referred to the property as “Allt-na-Ruigh” in some Ordnance Survey records, described it as a “traditional refurbished detached cottage sitting within its own policies in an attractive location within scenic Highland countryside.”
It sold for “double” its asking price.
The property was purchased by a businessman and mountaineer from Airdrie, who later distanced himself from it following posthumous revelations about Savile’s crimes.
And in 2021, it was sold for £335,000 to Glencoe Cottage Ltd, a company owned by the Glenshire Group Ltd, which is run by Harris Aslam, Raza Rehman and Amir Aslam from Kirkcaldy.
Who were Allt na Reigh’s most notable occupants?
Hamish MacInnes
Hamish MacInnes OBE BEM was born on July 7, 1930, and died aged 90 on November 22, 2020.
He was a renowned Scottish mountaineer, explorer, mountain rescue expert and author.
Among his many achievements, he is credited with inventing the first all-metal ice axe and a lightweight, foldable alloy stretcher, known as the MacInnes stretcher, which is widely used in mountain and helicopter rescues.
MacInnes was also a mountain safety advisor and stunt double for several major films, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Eiger Sanction, and The Mission.
He became a lifelong friend of actor and writer Michael Palin.
His 1972 International Mountain Rescue Handbook is considered a standard reference in mountain search and rescue.
In 1962, he co-founded the Search and Rescue Dog Association in Scotland with his then-wife, Catherine, a GP.
And in 1988, he was one of the co-founders of the Scottish Avalanche Information Service.
Jimmy Savile
Savile was an English media personality and DJ, born on October 31, 1926, and died two days short of his 85th birthday in 2011.
He was known for his eccentric persona, charitable work, and for hosting BBC shows Top of the Pops and Jim’ll Fix It.
It was work that gained him an OBE in 1971 and saw him knighted by The Queen in 1990, before he was unveiled as a predatory monster who had used his career and charitable work to abuse hundreds of victims.
What was Savile’s relationship with Allt-na-Reigh?
Savile used Allt-na-Reigh as a retreat and to host guests. He often slept in a campervan outside the house, near the outbuildings by the A82.
He became a well-known in the Highlands, a regular at Highland Games throughout the area and was known to visit Belford Hospital in Fort William.
In 2000, When Louis Met Jimmy saw documentary maker Louis Theroux visit the cottage as part of his two-week immersion into Savile’s life.
In 2012, ITV’s Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile revealed decades of sexual abuse, leading to Operation Yewtree, which uncovered hundreds of victims.
In 2016, Theroux’s documentary Savile explored how Savile was able to get away with a “long litany” of crimes.
Following a 2023 drama documentary on Savile’s life, a Press and Journal columnist called for the demolition of the house.
Plans are lodged by Aslam family to build a ‘striking house’
Locals backed an online consultation by Harris Aslam in 2021 to demolish Savile’s house.
The plans were criticised in 2022 by mountaineers, saying they were “not appropriate” for the area.
In November 2023, fresh plans to demolish Savile’s house were lodged. Mr Aslam wants to demolish the cottage and create a monument to Mr MacInnes.
Design images released at the time show the new ‘Hamish House’ in Glen Coe.
Again mountaineers objected to the plans, with heritage bosses claiming the proposed building was not in keeping with the glen’s architectural character.
Plan finally agreed for Hamish House on site of Savile’s former home
A redesign was again proposed in June 2024 in the hope it fitted better with the surrounding landscape, with those plans finally agreed upon by Highland Council on June 18.
Mr Aslam planned to demolish the cottage and build a new dwelling which would honour the legacy of mountaineer Hamish MacInnes – called Hamish House.
In June 2024, Graeme Hunter, who had known Hamish MacInnes for more than 60 years, said the mountaineering legend wished for the site to be given back to nature.
Mr Hunter said: “It was not something he really wanted to be associated with.”
A fire this month destroyed part of the outbuilding at the house.
It had long become a target, with repeated instances of graffiti being daubed on its walls.
In June 2019, The Press and Journal reported on the cottage being vandalised with the word “paedo” daubed on the side of the hillside house.
It has only deteriorated since.
In the days following this month’s fire, the Aslam family confirmed the house would be demolished as soon as possible, but were still waiting for a building warrant.
The house has also been embroiled in other scandals since it was owned by Savile.
In January 2019, tourism bosses apologised after posting a picture of his former home online, to promote Glen Coe.
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