A remote Highland cottage once tied to one of Britain’s darkest scandals has now been wiped from the landscape, as bulldozers moved in to level Allt-na-Reigh in Glen Coe.
The whitewashed property, perched along the A82, had been owned by disgraced former TV figure Jimmy Savile for more than a decade from the late 1990s. But after the scale of his crimes came to light following his death in 2011, the cottage became less a retreat and more a scar on the hills, repeatedly vandalised, torched, and left to decay.
Now, that chapter has been physically closed. Highland Council confirmed that demolition approval was granted in February 2026, and recent images show the structure reduced to rubble, its troubled past quite literally flattened into the earth.
For years, the building stood in limbo, its future fiercely debated. Before Savile’s ownership, it had belonged to celebrated Scottish mountaineer Hamish MacInnes, lending the site a legacy far richer than the notoriety that later engulfed it. Some voices called for the cottage to be preserved and repurposed, perhaps as a tribute to Scotland’s mountaineering heritage. Others argued its associations were too toxic to salvage.
In the end, the wrecking ball won.
Local leaders say the mood in the community is one of relief. Councillor Andrew Baxter described the structure as a long-standing blemish on one of Scotland’s most iconic landscapes, its graffiti-scarred walls and crumbling frame an unwelcome sight at the gateway to Glen Coe. Its removal, he said, allows residents and visitors alike to finally draw a line under that connection.
Plans are already forming for what comes next. A new development is expected to rise on the site, with efforts made to honour MacInnes and restore a sense of dignity to the location. The surrounding peaks, including the dramatic Three Sisters, remain as timeless as ever, indifferent witnesses to the rise and fall of human stories below.
The current owner, entrepreneur Harris Aslam, has thanked the council for expediting the demolition process and confirmed the area has been secured while work continues.
The public has been urged to keep their distance as the transformation begins.
Previous ambitions to turn the cottage into a respite centre quietly dissolved in the aftermath of the scandal, leaving the building to drift into ruin. Now, with its disappearance, Glen Coe sheds a lingering shadow.
Stone by stone, the past has been cleared. What replaces it will decide whether the story ends in quiet redemption or simply a clean slate.
