World War Two secret agents' house put up for sale
A Highland house where "troublesome" secret agents were kept busy during World War Two has been put up for sale.
Inverlair Lodge was taken over in 1941 by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), an army of saboteurs and guerrilla fighters formed to fight behind enemy lines.
Inverlair's residents were foreign nationals who had been unable to perform their duties but needed to be kept safe because of the dangerous secrets they knew about the Allied war effort.
Supervised by British soldiers, the agents were kept occupied with a range of tasks including mending boots and salvaging scrap metal from the surrounding countryside.
Estate agents Galbraith has put the 18th Century property on the market for offers over £1.3m.
More stories from the Highlands and Islands
News from the Highlands and Islands on BBC Sounds
Six-bedroom Inverlair Lodge, near Tulloch, about 20 miles (32km) from Fort William, was chosen because of its remote location.
During WW2 it was known as No. 6 Special Workshop School.
In interviews with the Imperial War Museum, Dundee-born Alfred Fyffe told how he was put in charge of Inverlair for 30 months.
He said the residents, who included Italians and Dutch, were supervised but not kept under armed guard and were even allowed to make trips into Fort William.
Mr Fyffe described the lodge as an "experiment" with agents of different nationalities living under one roof, and working on tasks designed to distract them from the secrets they knew.
One of their jobs was salvaging metal, including railway track, abandoned by British Aluminium which operated a smelter in Fort William.
Inverlair Lodge and similar SOE properties are said to have inspired the plot to 1960s TV drama The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan.
War-time prime minister Winston Churchill enthusiastically supported the formation of SOE, and ordered its agents to "set Europe ablaze".
Its history was an inspiration for film director Guy Ritchie's 2024 action-comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
SOE was disbanded after the war and Inverlair Lodge was vacated and fell into disrepair. It was restored in the 1970s.
Lochaber was a key training area for Allied forces during WW2.
Achnacarry Castle, the ancestral home of the chiefs of Clan Cameron and about 15 miles (24km) north east of Fort William, was used as commando training base.
The elite troops were from Britain and the US as well as France, the Netherlands, Norway, former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Belgium.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
From villain to hero: Meet Marvel's new Hawaii-born Spider-Girl
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Look out New York — and Hawaii. There's a new Spider-Hero in town. Just released this week, Marvel Comic's latest character. Her name? Spider-Girl. And she's complicated, powerful and better yet, she's Hawaii-born. She's fierce. She's fearless and bringing a fresh twist on classic Spidey vibes. Marvel's new Spider-Girl is officially here and she's creating a buzz. 'Avengers: Doomsday' cast includes Hemsworth's Thor, Mackie's Cap, Fantastic Four and original X-Men 'It's cool because it does bring awareness to the Hawaiian culture itself,' said Stig Lapoint, a comic book fan. This Next-Gen web slinger has roots in Hawaii. Her secret identity is Makawalu Akana and has a dark past that's unlike any Spider hero before her. 'She's a protege of a famous Daredevil villain called 'Bullseye,' and she's breaking away from that in the series and trying to become a proper hero,' said David Nakayama, a veteran cover artist who created the cover art for the debut issue. That's right, Spider-Girl didn't start out trying to save the day. Her superpower is being able to copy other superpowers.'I mean, that's literally the reason I signed on to do the project in the first place. They told me, Spider-Girl, she's Hawaiian. I'm like, Yes, you got me. I'm in,' Nakayama said. David says the challenge was to capture both power and personality in a single image. 'She's of two worlds, right? Like she's from Hawaii, but she's now fighting crime in New York, like a proper Spider person. So we wanted to capture that duality, right?' Nakayama said. 'She's also a youthful spider character, right? She's not Spider-Man, she's Spider-Girl. So, you know, putting in things like little plushies and tassels in her hair is something my daughter would wear. That's kind of the youthful energy we wanted to communicate,' The new ongoing Spider-Girl series is written by Torunn Gronbekk, known for her work with Thor and Venom. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news In a statement from Marvel, Spider-Girl she said 'eagerly jumps into fights others would think better of' and 'her arrival has definitely caught the attention of the criminal underworld… but maybe for the not the reason one would think.' 'You know, superhero women who are superheroes, has become much more popular in the last, you know, 20-25, years. And I think that's great. So that that hopefully will be a new crowd younger female readers who will get into comics,' said Charlie Whitesell, owner of Other Realms comic book store. Can Spider-Girl truly leave her villainous past behind and make it as a hero? You'll have to read it to see. The debut issue is on shelves now. David Nakayama will be signing copies of the debut issue on June 14 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Other Realms located on Nimitz Hwy in Iwilei. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Music Review: Dierks Bentley's 'Broken Branches' offers safe, familiar, cold beer country
Nashville hitmaker Dierks Bentley has delivered 'Broken Branches,' his eleventh studio album that leans into some well-tread country rock territory, the kind that invariably involves broken hearts, trucks and a cold beer. Look, Bentley knows what he's doing. The album is 11-tracks of catchy, country rock radio filler and there's not much mystery to its musical roadmap. But therein lies his calling card: Dependable songs with few rough edges. Thematically, many of the tracks on the superstar's latest effort hint at internal struggles, but allow Bentley and the listener to escape them unscathed. 'Jesus Loves Me' is an admirable acoustic slow burn about finding religion but losing a woman. 'Thought maybe if I hit my knees / She'd think about hitting the brakes,' Bentley sings. There is slight salvation for the Phoenix-born singer: 'Yeah, Jesus loves me / But she don't.' On the title track, the jukebox stomp 'Broken Branches,' Bentley gets a nice assist from fellow country hitmakers John Anderson and Riley Green. Ostensibly it's an energetic drinking song about family lines, but lyrics like 'We shoulda gone to college / Coulda gained a little knowledge,' which pull from a popular childhood rhyme, feel like they're underperforming. What Bentley does extremely well is execute what his — and the modern genre's — biggest fans might expect. Tales of a tough exterior with a warm, if fragile, heart underneath. But his familiar is derivative. Palatable country is how you get on the radio and stay on it. Songs about beer and trucks are Spotify deliverables. If you like your country artists with a longer rap sheet, you'll need to look further than 'Broken Branches.' Even the few attempts at invention don't totally land, like the rowdy, rocking 'She Hates Me,' which includes a surprising interpolation of post-grunge band Puddle of Mudd's 2001 hit 'She (Expletive) Hates Me.' If there's a pleasant find here, it's Stephen Wilson Jr. duetting with Bentley on the opening track, 'Cold Beer Can.' It's the most memorable song on the album — with its plucky instrumentation and ascendant chorus, which showcase Wilson Jr.'s rich voice and guitar talents.
Hypebeast
an hour ago
- Hypebeast
Zegna SS26 Is Laid-Back Luxury At its Finest
Zegnatook its runway presentation away from Milan for the first time to showcase its SS26 collection in Dubai, along with bringing its travelling 'Villa Zegna' brand experience to the destination. Kicked off by a live piano performance from British singer and producerJames Blake, the runway show took on a more relaxed tone than Zegna's more austere contemporary sensibilities presented in previous seasons. The opening looks are made with various lightweight, pre-wrinkled fabrics covered in desert-hued checks and stripes. Characterized by popped collars, open chests, barefoot with sandals in tow, and garments tied from the neck and waist, the styling gives further emphasis to the vacation-ready mood. Then Zegna takes the audience to a verdant oasis with a burst of green looks, featuring a spectrum of lime, olive, and forest green. Textured linens, light wools, and lustrous silks are used for cleanly tailored blousons, two-piece sets, and pleated shorts. Key design details include Safari-style utility pockets, monk and camp collars, and deep V-necks. Finally, the show closes with a saturated sunset palette, featuring violet-tinted pinks, warm coral, maroon, and deep Bordeaux reds. The exuberant finale demonstrates Zegna's more expressive and youthful side, speaking to Gen Z's tastes with candy-colored pieces, including a pink, oversized waffle knit polo and high-cut pink dress shorts. The wealthy UAE desert city, known for its luxury shopping malls and futuristic mega towers, is an important market for the brand, given the country's growing luxury clientele. According toWWD, in 2024, Ermenegildo Zegna Group, which also owns Thom Browne and Tom Ford Fashion, sales exceeded $700M USD in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, making for 35% of the group's revenues. Zegna has six stores in the city, as well as other Middle East outposts in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Turkey. See the gallery above for a closer look at the Zegna SS26 collection.
