Blackwater Reservoir
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. It inundated the Black Water and a chain of three lochs, Lochan Inbhir, Lochan na Sàlach Uidre and Loch a'Bhàillidh.
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. The reservoir has a surface area of, a mean depth of, and a volume of almost.
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 dam was built using hand tools, without the benefit of mechanical earth moving machinery, and has been described as the last major creation of the traditional 'navvy'. A workforce of 2000 to 3000 people, many were Irish navvies, endured the very wet conditions. In one 24 hour period during construction of the dam, of rain fell at Kinlochleven, but this didn't damage the dam.
Most of those building the scheme did not know what it was for, instead they called it "the waterworks". A number of these workers lost their lives constructing the dam; their graves, which are marked by concrete markers, are close to the dam. 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.
During the First World War, German prisoners worked on laying an aqueduct from Loch Eilde Mhor, to expand the production of the scheme, extending the catchment to.
The power house and aluminium smelting plant were situated in Kinlochleven, which is adjacent to the sea loch, Loch Leven. The smelter closed in June 2000. The power station now produces electricity for the aluminium smelter in Fort William, supplementing the supply from the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme. Surplus energy is sold to the national grid for public supply.
A small modern hydropower scheme, the River Leven Hydro Scheme, was constructed at the base of the dam in 2021 by Green Highland Renewables.