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Kinlochleven Aluminium Works, Power House
Hydroelectric Power Station (Modern)
Site Name Kinlochleven Aluminium Works, Power House
Classification Hydroelectric Power Station (Modern)
Canmore ID 267709
Site Number NN16SE 3.02
NGR NN 19050 61826
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/267709
- Council Highland
- Parish Lismore And Appin (Lochaber)
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Argyll
Kinlochleven Pioneering hydroelectricity plant and (now demolished) aluminium smelter, with good survival of early company housing, dwarfed by the Mamore hills at the head of Loch Leven. Opened in 1909, it is now obsolete to its original function, but an ambitious programme of phased regeneration has established part of the site as an outdoor tourism and small business centre. There was an inn here in the 18th century (where Pennant breakfasted on minced stag), and, by about 1900, two lodges - Kinlochmore and Kinlochbeg. In 1904 an Act of Parliament established the Loch Leven Water and Electric Power Co, which merged with the North British Aluminium Co Ltd. (set up in 1894) and built the Aluminium Works, 1905-9. Operated by the largest British hydroelectric power station of its day, works consisted of a large factory block containing rows of 76 smelters (closed in 2000 and now demolished), a warehouse, carbon works and laboratory. The power house, with a dramatic long perspective of 10 pelton wheel turbines by Escherwyss of Zurich and an 11 th of similar design, is still in situ and, as such, almost unique. The water supply was fed by the Blackwater Reservoir four miles away, its mass concrete dam by engineers Thomas Meik & Sons, 1904-9, 1 km wide - the largest in Europe at that time. The carbon silos/bunkers, vast arcaded rubble blocks incorporating structures of early reinforced concrete by T. Meik & Sons and A. H. Roberts, were converted in 2002 by Bruce & Neil Architects for the Kinlochleven Land Development Trust as an outdoor activity/interpretation centre and micro brewery. Most of the rest of the carbon factory was demolished in 1989.
[The North British Aluminium Company was set up in 1894 with Lord Kelvin as technical adviser.]
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NN16SE 3.02 19050 61826
Field Visit (2010)
The powerhouse utilised the head of water created by the construction of the Blackwater Dam to generate power for the adjacent aluminium smelter. It originally contained 11 (now 6 remain) pelton turbines which each ran two 1000 kW generators. The 25,725 kW supply was used in the production of aluminium and carbon anodes for use in electrolysis. The powerhouse design is functional with limited architectural detailing confined to some buttressing and window surrounds. The Kinlochleven enterprise was a significant advance in scale over the developments at Foyers, and represented a massive civil engineering achievement on its completion in 1909. The total UK output for aluminium at this time was 2,500 tonnes, less than a third of the capacity of the Kinlochleven scheme. This powerhouse is predated by the development at Foyers (see separate record) but is of a significantly large scale and retains a number of original turbines and generators to the interior. This powerhouse is prominently sited near the West Highland Way and is one of the last remaining buildings, along with the former carbon silos, of the former Kinlochleven Aluminium smelter. It originally contained 11 pelton turbines which each ran two 1000 kW generators. The 25,725 kW supply was used in the production of aluminium and carbon anodes for use in electrolysis. The architectural treatment of the building is a delicate balance between purely functional design and a highly reductive fusion of classical and early modernist styles, characterised by the sharply rectangular pilasters and severe profile of the building fused with the almost pediment like gable ends with central occuli. Added interest is gained from the early use of reinforced concrete and the retention of the plant with a good survival of original machinery to date. The powerhouse was stylistically influential with the majority of the pre 1943 schemes which postdate Kinlochleven adopting a similar functionalist classical design. P L Payne, 1988; E Wood, 2002; Concrete and Constructional Engineering IV,1909; Alcan, n.d., The Lochaber Water Power Scheme.
External Reference (28 February 2013)
A Pelton Wheel turbine from the factory has been put on display in a garden nearby at NN 18791 61762.
Information from M Briscoe, 28 February 2013
