Inverailort House is a mansion, south of

Lochailort Lochailort ( , gd, Ceann Loch Ailleart) is a hamlet in Scotland that lies at the head of Loch Ailort, a sea loch, on the junction of the Road to the Isles ( A830) between Fort William and Mallaig with the A861 towards Salen and Strontian. ...

, at the head of Loch Ailort.

History

Having been a shooting lodge for MacDonald of Clanranald, Inverailort House was enlarged in 1828 by Major General Sir Alexander Cameron. It was subsequently owned by James Head, a director of several shipping lines, who married into the Cameron family in 1890. Francis Cameron-Head died in 1957 and his widow lived at Inverailort until her death in 1994. Her companion Barbara Mackintosh continued to live at the house until her eventual death in 2015. In the late 19th Century Christian Cameron, the wife of James Head, was a keen photographer. She took many photographs of the house and surrounding area. Most of the glass plates were lost or destroyed when the military took over the house during World War II, but the surviving photographs have been published in a book. Christian Cameron is said to have died of a broken heart after much of the contents of the house were badly damaged by the army when they emptied it. During the Second World War, Inverailort was one of a few mansions in the area used as a training base by agents of the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

. Here British agents were taught ruthless techniques of intelligence gathering, sabotage and survival later directly adopted by the American CIA. One of those based there was the actor

David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in '' Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other roles ...

. This was requisitioned by the War Office at the end of May 1940 for use in the training of irregular forces as the Special Training Centre. Initially this was operated by MI(R) but became part of Combined Operations. Many techniques of guerilla and irregular warfare were developed there and training techniques which were adopted for Commando training. SOE training was centred on nearby Arisaig House. The army moved out of the house on 20 August 1942 and it was then taken over by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

when it became HMS Lochailort and used for the training of naval cadet ratings to be officers on small craft used by Combined Operations. The Royal Navy moved out in January 1945. The village and nearby buildings have appeared in films such as '' Local Hero'', ''

Breaking the Waves ''Breaking the Waves'' is a 1996 psychological drama film directed and co-written by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier and starring English stage actress Emily Watson as her feature film acting debut. Set in the Scottish Highlands in the early 197 ...

'' and '' Complicity''. The main businesses in the area are tourism and salmon farming in the loch. As of today, Inverailort House is in a ruinous state.

References

External links

Video of Inverailort HouseVideo of Loch Ailort and the salt marshesvideo of Lochailort railway station
{{Coord, 56, 52, 16.49, N, 5, 40, 15.26, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Special Operations Executive Houses completed in 1875

History

See also

References

External links