Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 578221
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/578221
The Water of Deugh joins the Water of Ken about 412 miles below the village of Carsphairn. A short distance upstream of this confluence, the two streams pass through narrow wooded gorges where the Deugh and Ken dams are located.
Ken Dam is similar to Deugh, but with its spillway 4 in. higher. Both are partly concrete arch design and partly
gravity section with the purpose of creating head and providing daily storage. Its arched section has a
maximum height of 81 ft from the river bed to the crest footway and has a developed length of 220 ft, a radius of
165 ft and a 4 to 1 batter. The surface rock on the south bank was of poor quality resulting in the spillway
channel being concrete-lined throughout. After dropping sharply to the river the spillway terminates in a concrete bucket (or energy dissipater) designed to destroy the kinetic energy of the flood water and prevent erosion of the river bed. The dam was completed in 1937. The consulting engineer was Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners and the main contractor, Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons Ltd.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
