THE sale of Jimmy Savile's Highland cottage will bring to an end the disgraced broadcaster's association with the area, says a community leader.
The three-bedroom cottage was bought by an as yet unnamed couple for £212,000, more than twice the £100,000 asking price.
The new owner of Allt Na Reigh, which had previously been the home of Scottish mountaineer Hamish MacInnes, is unknown but the woman buyer said she was a regular visitor to Glencoe and Lochaber. There is also speculation she may have represented a mountaineering group.
The money raised is to help settle some of the near-500 claims that have been made so far against the estate of the former DJ since he was exposed as a serial paedophile last year. It is thought Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, may have abused hundreds of young girls and some boys over four decades.
However local people in Glencoe have always insisted he was never seen taking children back to the cottage and it has not been confirmed as an abuse site. But it has repeatedly been the target of vandals in the aftermath of the revelations with graffiti such as "Jimmy the Beast" painted across its walls.
Savile bought the cottage for a reported £125,000 in 1998, and he once entertained Prince Charles there.
Ever since the volume of allegations against Savile was confirmed by police, there has been a debate as to what should happen to the property.
Lochaber councillor Andrew Baxter was one of the first to call for its demolition and feared it would become too powerful a reminder of Savile's crimes.
However climber, writer and broadcaster Cameron McNeish said he was opposed to knocking it down because of its associations to MacInnes, widely seen as the father of Scottish mountaineering.
Yesterday Mr Baxter said he was delighted the property had been sold. "It draws a line under the whole sorry saga of Jimmy Savile and Glencoe," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article