Loch Treig
| Loch Treig | |||||||||
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| Coordinates | 56 ° 48 '50 " N , 4 ° 43' 37" W | ||||||||
| Data on the structure | |||||||||
| Lock type: | Rockfall dam | ||||||||
| Construction time: | 1921-29 | ||||||||
| Height above foundation level : | 11.9 m | ||||||||
| Crown length: | 115 m | ||||||||
| Data on the reservoir | |||||||||
| Reservoir length | 9 km | ||||||||
| Reservoir width | 1 km | ||||||||
| Total storage space : | 2 090 000 m³ | ||||||||
Loch Treig is a reservoir in the Scottish Highlands . It is located in the Lochaber region , about 15 kilometers east of the town of Spean Bridge . Its Gaelic name means something like Hole of Death or Hole of the Dead . The lake was originally much smaller and was dammed in the 1920s as part of the Lochaber Hydro-Electric Power Scheme .
In the course of the expansion of the aluminum industry in Scotland in the 1920s, the British Aluminum Company (now part of Rio Tinto Alcan ) set up the Lochaber Hydro-Electric Power Scheme to use the region's hydropower for the electricity and water supply of their new power plant for the Use aluminum smelter in Fort William . As part of the system, the construction of which was carried out by Balfour Beatty and was under the direction of William Halcrow from 1923, Loch Treig was dammed by means of a stone embankment and the average water level was raised by almost eleven meters. The construction method as a rubble dam was first used in Scotland. The Lochaber narrow-gauge railway was built to transport material during construction . The two small settlements of Creaguaineach and Kinlochtreig on the south bank of the former lake fell victim to the damming . They were once important as resting places for the herds of cattle that were driven south from the Highlands to the markets of the Central Belt . Between Tulloch and Corrour , the stretch of the West Highland Line on the east bank of Loch Treig had to be raised, and a new railway tunnel was built a little south of the dam . Between the dam and the aluminum smelter near Fort William, an approximately 24-kilometer-long tunnel was created in which the water is transported from Loch Treig to the power station in Fort William. After completion in 1929, this tunnel was the longest tunnel of its kind for 50 years. Since 2011, the Loch Treig dam has been listed as a Category B listed building.
Apart from the small settlement of Fersit north of the dam, the area around Loch Treig is uninhabited and there are no paths or paths along the banks. On the south bank is Creaguaineach Lodge , a hunting lodge, and a little south of it the Bothy Staoineag , which can be reached via a public footpath between Glen Nevis and Corrour. On both sides of extending to just over nine kilometers approximately north-south direction lake surrounded by mountains is framed, striking the west of the twin peaks of the two as The Easains designated Munros Stob Coire Easain and Stob a 'Choire Mheadhoin , in the east of Stob Coire Sgrìodain , also a Munro. To the south is the somewhat lower and lonely mountain world north of Rannoch Moor .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Treig, Loch. In: Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved July 21, 2020 (English).
- ↑ a b Lochaber Hydro-Electric Power Scheme. In: Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved July 21, 2020 (English).
- ↑ a b Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ↑ Loch Treig Tunnel. railscot.co.uk, accessed July 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Bothy: Staoineag. Mountain Bothies Associaction, accessed July 21, 2020 .
Web links
- Entry on Loch Treig, Dam in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland database