Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Field Visit

Date 2010

Event ID 881959

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/881959

This spectacular dam provides storage and flow regulation for Errochty power station (in addition to a small degree of generation on the compensation water at Trinafour). The dam is diamond headed and heavily buttressed with a walkway to the top oversailing the fixed spillway. There are various wave walls and agitators to the base of the dam to control the water flow when it is at spill. Water is supplied to the dam from the headwaters of the River Garry via some 19 km of underground pipes and tunnels. The intake to the tunnel which takes water through to Errochty Power Station (see separate item) is located to the south end of the dam with an access deck supported on large cylindrical columns. The intake is topped by a gatehouse tower which houses a large roller gate allowing the isolation of the tunnel as required. This dam is relatively large in scale with prominent buttressing to the downstream face and the additional interest of the walkway oversailing the fixed spillway. The dam dominates the view up the glen, blocking off the passage of water to flood the upstream side. It is an unusual example of a diamond headed buttress dam, designed as such to withstand earth tremors from the nearby Highland Boundary Fault. The only other example of this type is Lednock Dam on the Breadalbane scheme (see separate item). P L Payne, 1988; J Miller, 2002, 42: 88918 Scottish Hydro Electric, 2000,18;67483741.

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/277915/details/errochty+reservoir+dam/

People and Organisations

References