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Jimmy Savile’s former Highland home set to be demolished and replaced with striking house

The cottage formerly owned by the late Jimmy Savile. Picture by SANDY McCOOK

Locals have backed an online consultation to demolish a Scottish Highland cottage once owned by sex beast Jimmy Savile.

Savile lived in the property at Allt-na-Reigh in Glencoe from 1998 until his death in 2011.

It has been repeatedly vandalised with slogans over the years since his death.

The cottage sits beside the A82 Fort William to Glasgow road.

Following Savile’s death in 2011, the two-bedroom bungalow was put up for auction.

It was purchased for £212,000 with the buyer intending to live there.

It has since been bought by the family of retail tycoon Harris Aslam, who wants to canvas local opinion on its future.

Disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile, whose house in Glencoe could soon be demolished.
Disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile’s house in Glencoe could soon be demolished.

Mr Aslam, who is in his 20s, is director of Fife-based Scottish convenience store operator Eros Retail, which is part of the family’s Glenshire group of companies.

Together with his cousin and business partner Raza Rehman – and other family members – they have bought the property from an Edinburgh builder for a reported £335,000.

He said they wanted to turn it into a family home with its “beautiful location”.

Mountaineering legend once owned ‘Jimmy Savile house’

It was also once home to the late mountaineering legend Hamish McInnes, who formed the Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team and was responsible for pioneering the wider mountain rescue movement in Scotland.

Now the new owners have revealed their preferred option is to raze it to the ground and replace it with a modern architect-designed property.

An online public consultation set-up by the new owners this week received general support for their plans to replace the existing house with a modern contemporary property which is sympathetic to its surroundings.

The new home has been designed by Dundee-based architect, Jon Frullani.

Digital rendering of the stylish new house proposed to be built in place of Jimmy Savile's Allt-Na-Reigh cottage in Glen Coe.
New home set to built on site of Jimmy Savile’s former Highland house.

The hope is also to incorporate some kind of tribute or memorial to Dr MacInnes, in an outbuilding on the site.

During a question-and-answer session with around 20 people, it was made clear that while Mr Aslam and Mr Rehman had looked at renovating the main existing building, which would be the easiest and cheapest option, it was concluded this was not viable if they wanted to rid the site of its association with Savile.

‘Unfortunate history’ attached to Allt-na-Reigh cottage

Helen Fairlie, chairperson of Glen Etive and Glencoe Community Council, wanted to know if Mr Aslam and his family would live in the proposed new three-bedroom house on a permanent basis.

“Just from the security issues you talked about, because I think it will take a long time for people to move away from the unfortunate bit of its history,” she said.

Mr Aslam said his family was considering various possibilities, adding: ‘We are quite an extensive family so the hope is there will be somebody there most of the time.’

Mr Aslam said the hope was for a planning application to be lodged with Highland Council by the end of this month if possible.

Over the years, the cottage had several slogans daubed on its walls – which had been whitewashed years earlier in an effort to deter vandals.