Field Visit
Date 2010
Event ID 881897
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/881897
The Blackwater dam created the Blackwater Reservoir to provide water for hydro generation at the Kinlochleven smelter (see separate record above). The dam was a massive undertaking at the time, built as a gravity dam over 86 feet high and 62 feet thick at its base with a length of over half a mile.The dam is of a large scale for its date, and was constructed in rugged and difficult terrain. Although lacking in any significant degree of technical innovation as seen at later dams, such as Laggan, the scale of the dam provided the most significant technical challenge. It was reputed to be the longest dam in the world at the time of its completion and is also an early use of mass concrete in dam construction of this type with Sir Robert MacAlpine as principal contractor. Architectural detail is limited to the central valve house which echoes the functional classicism of the powerhouse. The landscape presence of the dam is significant with the battered downstream face visible from the West Highland Way. A Scott, The British Aluminium Company’s Works in Constructional & Engineering IV, 1909, p 587; Alcan, n.d., The Lochaber Water Scheme; Concrete and Constructional Engineering, 1909; P L Payne, 1988; E Wood, 2002.
