Garramore House - Morar

Image: © Anthony O'Neil Taken: 29 May 2006

This 19th century country house, now a private guest-house, was taken over by the Government in the early months of the Second World War to provide a secret location for SOE training. Here, and in other hidden parts of the remote West Highlands, British and foreign agents and saboteurs were prepared for missions in occupied France. Gavin Maxwell (later well-known author of "Ring of Bright Water") worked at Garramore as a small arms specialist, others dealt in un-armed combat and explosives. The rugged and isolated terrain around Loch Morar was ideal territory for SAS-type exercises and they even practised by blowing up the nearby Fort William to Mallaig railway line.

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