Home win for Hamish Macbeth village
IT became a tourist hotspot after stealing the nation’s heart as ‘Lochdubh’ in the police comedy drama Hamish Macbeth.
As a result, the village of Plockton also became a haven for second homes where people could make a tidy profit from renting out – and pricing out the locals.
But now the residents of the Ross-shire village have prevailed in their battle to save the last available council house from becoming another holiday home.
They fought to prevent Highland Council from selling the three-bedroom home on the open market, where prices have surged beyond the range of local working people ever since the popularity of the TV series, starring Robert Carlyle.
The house on Harbour Street became vacant after the last tenant of more than 30 years moved into a care home. In 2018, the house next door was sold for £380,000, and six years ago another on the street went for £360,000.
The drama responsible for putting the village in the public eye saw Carlyle play a relaxed policeman who kept the peace in Lochdubh.
Constable Hamish Macbeth did his best to avoid promotion and keep what was his ideal job.
The series was filmed in Plockton, as well as in the village of Kyle of Lochalsh and its surrounding area.
Plockton and District Community Council had warned that half of the 80 homes in the centre of the village were now either second homes or available for letting.
Following protests, Highland Council said it would not sell the property, which has been refurbished and allocated to a teacher at the secondary school in the area – to the delight of residents.
Peter MacKenzie, chairman of Plockton’s council, said: ‘There is a feel-good factor in that a local teacher will now occupy it.’
He added there was ‘a big problem in the local hospitality sector where businesses can’t get staff because there is no affordable housing available for employees’.