Lochaber Archive Series: Glen Garry hydro-electricity project
Archivist Rory Green continues his journey through the fascinating collections at Lochaber Archive Centre.
Amongst the collections at Lochaber Archive Centre, we are lucky to hold a number of photograph albums relating to the construction of the Glen Garry hydro-electricity project at Loch Quoich.
The collection dates from 1953 to 1963 and shows the scale of the scheme from its building stages to the point it became fully operational.
When UK electricity was nationalised in 1948, The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board took over the assets of the Grampian Electricity Supply Company and other bodies producing electricity in northern Scotland.
In the same year, the Garry scheme (Constructional scheme No. 24) and the Moriston scheme (Constructional scheme No. 23) started.
The architects were George Annand and James Grant Shearer, with Sir William Halcrow & Partners responsible for engineering.
The Garry section, with Loch Quoich as its main storage and Loch Garry as its second, forms the southern part of the scheme.
The Quoich dam, erected in 1955, was the largest of its kind at the time, at 125 feet high and 1,050 feet long. It was filled with earth, reinforced with concrete and faced with natural stone. From this, dam water is sent by tunnel to Quoich power station on the River Garry.
The smaller Invergarry dam, at 50 feet high and 150 feet long, was built in a gorge downstream in 1956.
It was smaller in order to minimise disruption to agriculture in the area. Two gates with a separate intake gatehouse tower control the level of the Loch.
Water is carried by tunnel to the Invergarry power station near the mouth of the River Garry on Loch Oich. A fish bypass tunnel was also built at the gorge.
The Moriston section consists of two main reservoirs, Loch Loyne and Loch Cluanie. From the Cluanie dam, at 2,214 feet long and 131 feet high, water is carried by tunnel to the Ceannacroc power station, one of the first underground power stations to be built in Britain.
The Ceannacroc power station discharges into the River Moriston.
Around Loch Dundreggan lies a further dam, built between 1947 and 1952, with a Borland Lift for salmon and another power station, Livishie.
It discharges into Loch Dundreggan, also known as Dundreggan reservoir. Underground, beneath the Dundreggan dam, the Glenmoriston Power Station, the largest of the scheme, discharges into the River
Moriston.
Becoming fully operational in 1962, the scheme has a total capacity of 113 megawatt.
The Garry Project Photographs, 1952-1963, are available for viewing in the archive searchroom at Lochaber Archive Centre which is open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10am to 4.30pm.
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