Allt-na-Reigh, a cottage situated in Glen Coe and formerly owned by disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile, has been repeatedly vandalized since his death in 2011. A review by Dame Janet Smith, published in 2016, identified 72 victims of Savile in connection with his work at the BBC. Graffiti now covers the walls, the windows are smashed and the roof is damaged with tiles having been deliberately ripped off it. The targeting of Allt-na-Reigh has led to calls for it to be flattened and the site left to go wild.
Tucked into a hillside on the A82 in Glen Coe, Allt-na-Reigh was once a well-known landmark, a symbol that suggested one had arrived in Glen Coe. Hamish MacInnes, a legendary Scottish mountaineer, was a former resident who is now set to be honored by the redevelopment of the outbuildings to become Hamish House. However, some believe that the cottage should quietly vanish and the site left to go wild. Photographer and film-maker John Cleare, a long-time mountaineer, who first came across the cottage in 1952, said: “Like so many such places, it may make a better memory than a tainted ruin.”
Rob Taylor, who worked as an apprentice to MacInnes in the late 1960s and remained close friends with the mountaineer, believes the sight of the cottage became a lasting reminder of Savile’s evil deeds. MacInnes only once mentioned what he thought should happen to the place, saying that it should be knocked down and have the stain removed from the landscape. Mick Tighe, a former marine commando and Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team member, sees the damage to the cottage as senseless acts of vandalism, and agrees that the cottage should be razed and rewilded.
Allt-na-Reigh’s short association with Jimmy Savile has put at risk the positive impacts it has had over a much longer period of time. Local people say that Savile did not spend much time at the cottage, and when he did, he usually slept in a van outside the cottage. Davy Gunn, who served as a volunteer in Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team, along with MacInnes and similarly knew him well, believes his friend would have been uncomfortable with the idea of a house being named after him. Gunn blames the media for stirring up anger around Savile’s ownership of the cottage and says that the best thing to do is just to flatten the site
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