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Loch Luichart Power Station
Hydroelectric Power Station (Modern)
Site Name Loch Luichart Power Station
Classification Hydroelectric Power Station (Modern)
Alternative Name(s) Conon Valley Hydroelectric Power Scheme
Canmore ID 173042
Site Number NH35NE 20
NGR NH 39412 57019
NGR Description Centred
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/173042
- Council Highland
- Parish Contin
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Ross And Cromarty
- Former County Ross And Cromarty
NH35NE 20 centred 3942 5702
Field Visit (2010)
Loch Luichart power station receives water from Luichart dam (see separate item) via tunnel from a short distance upstream. The stations turbine hall houses two turbines. Additional workshop and office accommodation is contained to the East end and in the lower single storey block. A transformer station lies across the minor road which bisects the site. Luichart is the largest station on the Conon Valley scheme. This station is characteristic of a medium power station forming part of a broader scheme. The station has the characteristic design features of the period including large two-storey glazed windows to the turbine hall and large teak access doors. The station is constructed from local Torrodail sandstone characteristic of James Shearer’s desire that all projects use local stone as far as possible for their construction. PL Payne, 1988, 5; E Wood, 2002, 38; J Miller, 2002.
Note (25 October 2023)
The Conon scheme
This project involves three separate stages: the Fannich scheme, the Glascarnoch-Luichart-Torr Achilty scheme and the Orrin scheme. The first of these involved tunnels and aqueducts to increase the flow into Loch Fannich, and a tunnel from the bed of Loch Fannich to the Grudie Bridge power station at the west end of Loch Luichart. This involved a severe problem at the Loch Fannich end. Work began in 1946 and a dam was built later, completing the section in 1951.
Work began on the second stage in 1951., producing two artificial lochs Vaich and Glascarnoch by damming the respective rivers, using the earth and rockfill method. Tunnels were excavated between these lochs and from Loch Glascarnoch to Mossford power station on Loch Luichart. A dam at the east end of Loch Achanalt allows loch to supply the Achsanalt power station near Grudie Bridge. Two artificial lochs Meig and Achonachie were produced by dams on the rivers Meig and Conon to supply power stations at Luichart and Torr Achilty respectively. Work on this section was completed in 1957.
The Orrin scheme was started in 1955 and involved the building of a mass gravity dam 1000 feet long and an earth embankment also 1000 feet in length to seal off a branch valley, thus forming the Orrin Reservoir. The outflow is through a concrete -lined tunnel to a steel pipeline supplying the Orrin power station at Loch Achonachie. Four Borland fish lifts had been installed at Luichart, Meig, Achanalt and Torr Achilty. The scheme was completed in 1961, the six power stations producing an output well over 100,000 kW.
Information from NRHE catalogue record WP007424, compiled by George Walker, 2005.
