A heartbroken son has revealed that he spoke to his mother just hours before she died in a house fire.
Police yesterday confirmed that Edith Allan’s body had been found in the burnt-out croft, a week after the blaze broke out.
The 65-year-old lived on her own in Sangomore, Durness, after leaving her home near Inverness to care for a friend.
Last night, her son Kyle said he spoke to his mother every day – and had been hoping to move her into sheltered accommodation closer to him in Glasgow.
The 30-year-old said: “I spoke to her last Sunday at about 10pm. I got a phone call that woke me up at about 3am saying there were a fire and that my mum was unaccounted for.
“She had a heart attack a few years back and wasn’t found for four days – that’s why I phoned her every day, to make sure she was OK up there.”
Miss Allan moved to the village to care for a dying crofter friend, Donald Matheson, who the family had known for some years. In gratitude, he had bequeathed her the Durness croft.
Mr Allan, a sound engineer, had recently been arranging sheltered accommodation for his mother, closer to his home, but said she had ultimately decided that she wanted to remain in Sutherland.
In recent years she had a variety of jobs, working at the Highland Flying School, Inverness Medical and then hotel reception roles after moving north.
Miss Allan had previously lived at Dalcross near Inverness, where shocked neighbours yesterday paid tribute.
Gordon MacGregor, a neighbour at Wester Connage, said: “I just couldn’t believe it when I heard about the fire and now this. It’s very sad news.
“She was a very nice woman. She was wonderfully self-sufficient, chopping her own sticks and that sort of thing.
“I only knew her a short time but she was very sociable. We’d often sit out the back and have a blether about day-to-day things.
“We met up again in Durness. I was delivering stuff up there, just after she moved there.
“She was a great character. She moved up there in a cattle truck.”
The fire caught broke out at about 2am last Monday, but extensive structural damage rendered the building unsafe to enter.
Yesterday however, a police spokesman confirmed a body had been found inside and that Miss Allan’s family had been notified.
Local councillor Hugh Morrison, who owns a hotel in Durness, said the community had been deeply saddened by the past week’s events.
“There is nothing really left of the building, just the four walls,” he said. “The roof caved in.
“Edith had been in the village for about eight years and at first looked after Donald, an elderly gentleman. But after he died in 2010 she continued to live there.
“She kept herself to herself. She was a private person.”
Mr Allan posted a picture of him with his mother on social media, prompting more tributes from friends with happy memories – frequently referring to Mrs Allan as a “beautiful lady”.
Inquiries into the cause of the fire are continuing, although police said there were no suspicious circumstances. A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.
