Stella McCartney granted permission for £5m home in Scottish Highlands

The fashion designer Stella McCartney has been granted permission to build a £5m home on a spectacular Highland peninsula after a three-year planning battle over the threat to local otters and the “hideous” modernist design.
McCartney and her husband, Alasdhair Willis, a creative director at Adidas, want to build the split-level property with a turf roof and natural stone walls on the rocky outcrop overlooking Loch Ailort, west of Fort William, 30 metres above sea level.
Opponents raised objections about the likely impact of the property’s size and design, as well as the impact on landscape and wildlife of the remote Moidart peninsula.
However, amended plans were submitted to the Highland council and officers recommended on Wednesday that they grant permission, subject to conditions, which included the protection of wildlife, public access to the beach below the property and measures to mitigate the effect of external lighting on the surrounding landscape.
Multiple objections related to the presence of otter holts, or underground dens, around the site, with experts suggested that an exclusion zone would be necessary to prevent any harm or disruption to the animals, which are a protected species.
NatureScot, which indicated it would licence the plans after Willis commissioned a wildlife survey of the site, said cameras should be put up during the building work to ensure there was no threat to otters and their cubs.
The secluded viewpoint became known as Commando Rock after it was used to train soldiers during the second world war. Its Gaelic name is Creag na Speireig – crag of the sparrowhawk – and it is where the Victorian artist Jemima Blackburn found inspiration for her bird paintings.
McCartney’s home will sit on land that already has planning permission, but the couple have proposed a design they say is more environmentally sensitive and less visually intrusive.
Bill Lobban, a local councillor, said it was appropriate that the building was on Commando Rock because it was like “a second world war concrete bunker”, but acknowledged the “hideous design” was “less hideous” than the one initially granted permission on the site.
A spokesperson for the couple said the house had been “sympathetically designed, using natural Scottish stone with a turfed roof, and will be secluded and barely visible due to the site’s contours, including views from the water”.
Other local people objected that the development would be used as a holiday home, but the couple, who share a love of Scotland and married on the Isle of Bute in 2003, have said that are planning a permanent residence.
McCartney spent many childhood holidays on the Kintyre peninsula, farther south, which her father, Paul, immortalised in the Wings song Mull of Kintyre.
In previous submissions, Willis said: “This is not a speculative investment or holiday let. We want to live here full-time and be part of the community.”
A spokesperson for the couple said: “We are pleased that our planning application has been granted, subject to conditions, and are most grateful to officers and councillors for their support.
“Unlike many of the homes in the area, this is not a holiday home; it is a house that the family will live in, our forever home. We look forward to continuing to engage with the local community as we progress our development and when we move into our new home.”