Photos show crumbling walls and mould in Barra’s Castlebay School

The comhairle’s chief executive, Malcolm Burr, said the state of the school was a matter of regret and sadness for the local authority.

He said: “The replacement of Castlebay School in its entirety is the comhairle’s top capital project.”

Mr Burr said the school was maintained to a safe standard and it was not dangerous.

The comhairle had proposed building a replacement school as part of the Barra and Vatersay Campus Project.

Under the plan, the campus would also have had leisure facilities, housing, a hospital and a police station.

Mr Burr said the project was presented to the Scottish government but the hospital element could not be progressed.

He said: “That effectively means you have to look at the costing of the project again.

“The new project is education and leisure facilities.

“That is what we are working very hard to develop as soon as we can – provided funding allows that.”