THE HIGHLAND cottage owned by the late TV presenter Jimmy Savile should be transformed into a mountaineering museum, according to a leading author and broadcaster.
Cameron McNeish, a renowned mountain walker and commentator, has challenged suggestions that Allt Na Reigh, in Glencoe, should be demolished following vandalism of the property.
The cottage was previously the home of Scottish mountaineer Hamish MacInnes, who invented revolutionary equipment at the house, such as the metal ice axe and mountain rescue gear widely used today.
Mr McNeish called MacInnes “probably our greatest Scottish mountaineer”.
He said: “At that house and the little adjoining workshop he invented some of the ice axes that have gone on to be the standard ice axes today, also tools used by mountain rescue teams.
“That will always be Hamish MacInnes’s house and will always have that mountaineering historical significance. It would be a shame if those mountaineering memories were swept up along with the tarnished memories of Jimmy Savile.”
The whitewashed building was sprayed with orange paint and abusive slogans last year after revelations of child and sex abuse allegations against the former Top Of The Pops and Jim’ll Fix It host.
The words “Jimmy The Beast” were painted across the front of the building, while “Beast” was sprayed over a side wall.
Previous plans to turn the remote property into a respite care centre for the disabled were abandoned when the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust closed down in the wake of the scandal.
Highland councillor Andrew Baxter, who represents the Fort William and Ardnamurchan ward, had previously said that demolition of the cottage was a “final option” and had been suggested by local residents.