Lochaber’s Inverlair Lodge: World War Two secret brokers’ area promote it

A Highland area the place “troublesome” secret brokers had been saved busy all over World War Two has been promote it.

Inverlair Lodge was once taken over in 1941 via the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a military of saboteurs and guerrilla opponents shaped to combat in the back of enemy strains.

Inverlair’s citizens had been international nationals who have been not able to accomplish their tasks however had to be saved protected as a result of the damaging secrets and techniques they knew concerning the Allied warfare effort.

Supervised via British infantrymen, the brokers had been saved excited about a spread of duties together with mending boots and salvaging scrap steel from the encircling nation-state.

Estate brokers Galbraith has put the 18th Century assets available on the market for provides over £1.3m.

Six-bedroom Inverlair Lodge, close to Tulloch, about 20 miles (32km) from Fort William, was once selected as a result of its far flung location.

During WW2 it was once referred to as No. 6 Special Workshop School.

In interviews with the Imperial War Museum, Dundee-born Alfred Fyffe informed how he was once put in control of Inverlair for 30 months.

He mentioned the citizens, who integrated Italians and Dutch, had been supervised however now not saved underneath armed guard and had been even allowed to make journeys into Fort William.

Mr Fyffe described the hotel as an “experiment” with brokers of various nationalities dwelling underneath one roof, and dealing on duties designed to distract them from the secrets and techniques they knew.

One in their jobs was once salvaging steel, together with railway observe, deserted via British Aluminium which operated a smelter in Fort William.

Inverlair Lodge and identical SOE homes are mentioned to have impressed the plot to 1960s TV drama The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan.

War-time high minister Winston Churchill enthusiastically supported the formation of SOE, and ordered its brokers to “set Europe ablaze”.

Its historical past was once an inspiration for movie director Guy Ritchie’s 2024 action-comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

SOE was once disbanded after the warfare and Inverlair Lodge was once vacated and fell into disrepair. It was once restored within the 1970s.

Lochaber was once a key coaching house for Allied forces all over WW2.

Achnacarry Castle, the ancestral house of the chiefs of Clan Cameron and about 15 miles (24km) north east of Fort William, was once used as commando coaching base.

The elite troops had been from Britain and the USA in addition to France, the Netherlands, Norway, former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Belgium.