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HERE'S advance notice of a radio programme on Friday, November 27, which will be of interest to a lot of locals. It's called The Spies Who Knew Too Much and it's on BBC Radio Scotland from 11.30am-noon. Mark Stephen will reveal some of the secrets of Inverlair Lodge, described as "one of the most mysterious homes in the Highlands". Inverlair inspired the long-running TV series The Prisoner and also the spy thriller The Cooler but, as Mark discovers, "truth is stranger than fiction". During the Second World War, Inverlair Lodge was used by the Special Operations Executive. It was given the name "No 6 Special Workshop School" but in London it was simply referred to as either "up North" or "The Cooler". Inverlair was a place where secret agents were sent, who had either failed their training or been recalled from operations. The Cooler was a very good description of the camp as the inmates were kept until the information they had been given had cooled - and, of course, a "cooler" is also a slang term for prison. Today the holes from bullets sprayed around the staircase and one cell-like room hold some of the secrets that give clues to Inverlair's wartime past. Richard Sidgwick, who lived in the house from the 1970s, has spent more than 30 years unravelling the secrets, and he returns with Mark to share his remarkable discoveries. Richard reveals who might have been held in Room 13 with its sliding Judas hatch, and the infamous SOE trainer who left the bullet holes in the staircase. During the renovations of the house, Richard came across some notes and poems left behind by the wartime inhabitants. These give a moving insight into what life was like in The Cooler.

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