Cruachan Power Station - Bright future ahead for star attraction
By Sarah Cameron, Drax’s Scotland Community Manager
I’ve always thought a trip to Cruachan Power Station is electrifying for visitors, but now its official - VisitScotland has voted Cruachan among Scotland’s top tourist attractions!
VisitScotland awarded the plant’s visitor centre a full five-star rating, with it ranking amongst the likes of Edinburgh Castle and Glasgow Science Centre. The power station is also now in the top 1% of attractions across the country, which not all five-star attractions achieve.
The visitor centre and its staff were put through their paces by the VisitScotland team. A ‘secret shopper’ style visit took place to assess how the visitor centre was performing. The facility earned top marks for the performance of its employees in areas including hospitality and friendliness, service and efficiency, cleanliness, and appearance.
Each year tens of thousands of visitors come to Cruachan to get a glimpse of this underground engineering marvel. The cavernous turbine hall is located 1km deep within the hollowed-out mountain of Ben Cruachan, housing four generators which can provide enough energy to power almost 1 million homes.
There’s also something unexpected you can find within the power station: a work of art. Sitting above the rumbling turbines is a wood and gold-leaf mural which tells the story of how this remarkable engineering achievement came to help power the country.
However, what’s above ground is well worth a look too.
The visitor centre has incredible views of Loch Awe and is situated beneath Ben Cruachan, where legend has it that the Old Hag of the Ridges once guarded a mythical spring. You can see if you can spot her from our visitors’ centre while enjoying a cup of tea and homemade scone from our café. What’s not to like?
Cruachan has a wonderful history and Drax, the power station’s owners, are committed to giving it a bright future.
We’re already investing £80 million in refurbishing and upgrading the site, but we want to go even further and build a brand-new underground power station adjacent to the existing site. We’ll invest half a billion pounds to increase Cruachan’s generating capacity to one gigawatt, providing enough power for two million homes and creating hundreds of new jobs.
Exploratory seismic survey work has already started which is helping us understand the geology of the mountain side where the new plant would be housed inside.
While it is only exploratory work for now, it brings the plans one step closer to being realised.
If the next UK Government gets behind the proposals, a new generation of ‘Tunnel Tigers’ could be roaring under the slopes of Ben Cruachan once again, to continue the station’s crucial role in strengthening Scotland’s energy security.
Cruachan - The Hollow Mountain, Visitor Centre, Dalmally, PA33 1AN
www.visitcruachan.co.uk
Latest News
JOBS
Sign up to our daily Newsletter
Permission Statement
Yes! I would like to be sent emails from West Coast Today
I understand that my personal information will not be shared with any third parties, and will only be used to provide me with useful targeted articles as indicated.
I'm also aware that I can un-subscribe at any point either from each email notification or on My Account screen.
You may also like
Latest News
JOBS
Sign up to our daily Newsletters
Permission Statement
Yes! I would like to be sent emails from West Coast Today
I understand that my personal information will not be shared with any third parties, and will only be used to provide me with useful targeted articles as indicated.
I'm also aware that I can un-subscribe at any point either from each email notification or on My Account screen.
© 2024 Wyvex Media Limited.