Loch Shin, Duchally Weir And Power Station

This power station is sited in a remote location to the NW of Lairg on a small burn. The site comprises a dam, powerhouse and a number of aqueducts and pipelines feeding water into the catchment from elsewhere. The dam provides an element of storage for Cassley Power Station to which it feeds water through a tunnel. The site also includes a small power station with a single turbine. Due to the remote location of the site this is operated entirely by water level. The input pipe slopes diagonally down into the water before curving downhill again to the turbines. Only when the water level is sufficient for water to ascend the inclined pipe can it flow into the penstocks and through the turbines. This is a standard item of its type. PL Payne, 1988, 5; E Wood, 2002, 38; J Miller, 2002.

The Shin hydroelectric scheme

Work began in 1954 on the Lairg dam., a concrete gravity and earth- fill type at the east end of Loch Shin. Lairg power station was built into the dam and employs a vertical Kaplan turbine generating 3.5MW. Out flow is into Little Loch Shin which supplies Shin power station through a tunnel. This station has two horizontal Francis turbines generating a total of 24MW. Cassley power station at the west end of Loch Shin is fed by aqueducts and a tunnel, and produces an output of 10MW. A Borland fish lift is provided at Lairg dam. The scheme was completed in 1960.

Information from NRHE catalogue item number WP007424 compiled by George Walker in 2005.