Qualla: Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme

Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0. Prince Philip stood at Fasnakyle power station on 13 October 1952 and addressed the question that everyone in the Highlands had been arguing about for a decade. The Hydro Board was destroying the glens, the critics said. The Board was preserving them, the engineers said. The Duke of Edinburgh, who had accepted the invitation specifically to see for himself, delivered his verdict in a single sentence: 'To suggest that this power house alone destroys the beauty of Glen Affric is being as fastidious as the fairy-tale princess who could feel a pea under 15 mattresses.' The scheme he had come to open ran from Loch Mullardoch in the west to Kilmorack near Beauly in the east, eventually drawing power from five major lochs and ten power stations along three connected glens.

Image: Richard Webb | CC BY-SA 2.0

Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme: The Vision Tom Johnston Carried

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alasdair MacDonald, CC BY-SA 2.0. The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board was created by the 1943 Act that Tom Johnston, then Secretary of State for Scotland, had championed during the war. His vision was unusual: a public body that would build hydro stations across the Highlands and use the profits from selli...

Image: Alasdair MacDonald | CC BY-SA 2.0

Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme: Mullardoch, the Largest Dam

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul Hookway, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Loch Mullardoch dam at the head of Glen Cannich was the largest the Board ever built—2,385 feet long, 160 feet high from foundation to crest, holding back 7.5 billion cubic feet of water. John Cochrane and Sons built it in two halves, using an island in the middle of the loch...

Image: Paul Hookway | CC BY-SA 2.0

Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme: Britain's Only Double-Arched Dam

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alasdair MacDonald, CC BY-SA 2.0. The second phase—Constructional Scheme No. 30, Strathfarrar and Kilmorack—drew the riparian opposition the Board had dodged the first time. Lord Lovat received £100,000 in a private settlement for damage to fishing rights and spawning grounds. A public enquiry sat in December 195...

Image: Alasdair MacDonald | CC BY-SA 2.0

Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme: James Shearer's Power Stations

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Fasnakyle power station, opened by Prince Philip, was the work of James Shearer—one of three architects the Board retained to ensure its stations looked like they belonged in the Highlands. Three vertical Francis turbo-alternators of 22 megawatts each draw water down a 5,025-...

Image: Richard Webb | CC BY-SA 2.0

Affric-Beauly hydro-electric power scheme: Borland Lifts and Atlantic Salmon

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. The rivers in this scheme matter for Atlantic salmon, and the dams at Beannacharan, Aigas, and Kilmorack carry Borland fish lifts—essentially navigation locks for fish, with an upper and lower pool connected by a sloping shaft. Each lift takes about an hour to fill. The Aigas and...

Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0