A Highland estate is pressing ahead with controversial plans to demolish a former school and replace it with a modern house.
In March of this year, Kingairloch Estate applied to Highland Council for planning permission to demolish the old school at Camusnacroise, Kingairloch, in Ardgour, which started life as a manse and has also been used as a popular ceilidh place.
However, objectors pointed out that it was a well documented historic building – thought to have been constructed as early as 1770.
The council received 11 public objections to the application and the council’s historic environment team described the building as being “of local and regional importance”.
The estate then withdrew the planning application, but it has now submitted a new one – the only change this time is that the design has been altered to more closely resemble the original.
Former Highland councillor Dr Michael Foxley, who objected to the previous application, said it was an historic building and he would definitely be objecting again.
He said: “What it requires is an owner and an architect with a sensitivity to keep the walls and roof line of the original school and school house and to put an extension on that is very sympathetic to the original style.”
In his previous objection, he said he stayed at the school on several occasions in the 1970s and believed it was “worthy of protection”.
He wrote: “Kingairloch then was a vibrant community with an active school.
“At one New Year, over 20 Camerons met to celebrate Hogmanay. Since then, the previous owners, as well as the current owners, have deliberately run down the populace so that it is now an empty land, with no permanent population, only holiday homes.
“As a society, we have been unable to stop the emptying of this lovely glen, so can the planning authority, at least, insist on the retention of this lovely and historic school building?”
Susan Larson, who is one of the partners in the estate, said: “It is nothing special, it’s just a wee but ‘n’ ben.
“We withdrew the application to consult Historic Scotland to see if they wanted to do anything with it but they said it was not a building of note.
“They are not interested in listing it so we decided to review our application and change the design.
“We’ve changed the French windows on the front for ordinary windows and it now looks very similar to what is there now.”
She added that the footings of the old building were in such a poor state that rebuilding was the only option.