The Blackwater Reservoir is a reservoir created behind a dam in the mountains above Kinlochleven, Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. The dam is long, the longest in the Highlands. The reservoir created is approximately long, with a drainage basin of about .
The dam and reservoir was constructed as part of the Kinlochleven hydroelectric scheme in the early 1900s for the British Aluminium Company for the purpose of smelting aluminium and was designed by engineers Patrick Meik and Charles Meik. Chief assistant resident engineer was William Halcrow. It was the first rock fill embankment dam to be constructed in Scotland.
The high dam was built at an elevation of about in rugged terrain. The crest level of the dam is at .
History
The Kinlochleven hydroelectric scheme was authorised by the Loch Leven Water Power Acts of 1901 and 1904.
Construction commenced in 1905, and the scheme was completed four years later in 1909. The Navvies' Graveyard is approximately west of the dam.
of concrete aqueduct was constructed contouring around the hillside to above Kinlochleven. Six parallel steel penstock pipelines in diameter then carry the water down the hillside to the powerhouse.
A small modern hydropower scheme, the River Leven Hydro Scheme, was constructed at the base of the dam in 2021 by Green Highland Renewables.
See also
- List of reservoirs and dams in the United Kingdom
References
External links
- BBC One - Making Scotland's Landscape, Scotland's Water, Blackwater Dam
- Blackwater Reservoir, Kinlochleven
- Blackwater Reservoir, Dam on Canmore