Lochailort, General

Lochailort An old staging post, this hamlet has the air of a small frontier settlement set down in the rockknuckled wilderness that was once the favoured hunting ground of the Clanranalds. It saw great changes at the turn of last century, when a construction camp housing 2,000 railway navvies was based here. All that has gone now, the stage house/fishing inn has been rebuilt, and even the railway station has been swept away. But the legacy of Lochailort's transformation as the site of the first Commando training camp and SOE base during the Second World War survives, with a significant group of military structures. These include remains of the parade ground, the generator house and two ammunition sheds -now part of the Inverailort Salmon Hatchery, whose parent company, Marine Harvest, was founded here in 1967.

Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk