Qualla: Kinlochleven Hydroelectric Scheme

Kinlochleven Hydroelectric Scheme: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Bond, CC BY-SA 2.0. Three thousand men, mostly Irish navvies, lived on the moor above Kinlochleven for four years and built a dam half a mile wide across the Blackwater. Many died in construction accidents and were buried beside the dam under concrete headstones. The scheme they finished in 1909 was the second hydroelectric installation in Scotland after the 1896 Falls of Foyers. It powered a brand-new aluminium smelter that was, on its own, larger than every other aluminium smelter in Britain combined. The smelter closed in 2000. The hydro scheme is still running.

Image: Peter Bond | CC BY-SA 2.0

Kinlochleven Hydroelectric Scheme: A Dam in Difficult Country

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rmaclean3, Public domain. Thomas Meik and Sons designed the scheme. Sir A R Binnie consulted. Sir John Jackson Ltd was the main contractor, with A H Roberts as resident engineer. The Loch Leven Water Power Acts of 1901 and 1904 gave them legal authority. What they had to build was a mass-concrete gravity ...

Image: Rmaclean3 | Public domain

Kinlochleven Hydroelectric Scheme: The Navvies

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rmaclean3, Public domain. Three thousand men, most of them Irish navvies, did the actual building. They lived in temporary camps on a high moor that for most of the year is brutally cold and wet. The work was dangerous. The cableway that brought materials up from a wharf on Loch Leven was strung on trestl...

Image: Rmaclean3 | Public domain

Kinlochleven Hydroelectric Scheme: Prisoners of War Built the Extension

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rmaclean3, Public domain. During the First World War, aluminium demand spiked. Balfour Beatty was brought in to extend the scheme by tapping Loch Eilde Mor, increasing the catchment to sixty-six square miles. The new dam and aqueduct were built by 1,200 German prisoners of war and 500 British troops of lo...

Image: Rmaclean3 | Public domain

Kinlochleven Hydroelectric Scheme: What Powers It Now

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rmaclean3, Public domain. The original eleven Pelton turbines ran for most of the twentieth century. Between 1996 and 2001 Gilkes, the Kendal engineering firm, replaced them in stages with three 10-megawatt horizontal-axis Francis turbines while the facility was still operating. The first new turbine, K1,...

Image: Rmaclean3 | Public domain