Blackwater Reservoir

The Blackwater Reservoir lies high in the mountains above Kinlochleven in the Scottish Highlands. A dam more than 900 metres long holds back a long, narrow lake created in the early 1900s to power an aluminium smelter. The reservoir drowned three small lochs and the original Black Water, leaving only the water surface and surrounding peaks. The dam was the first of its kind in Scotland and was designed by engineers Patrick Meik and Charles Meik. It took four years to build by hand with a workforce of up to 3,000, many of them Irish navvies who worked in constant rain. Five German prisoners of war later laid an extra aqueduct during the First World War to increase the catchment area. The scheme once supplied power to one of Britain’s biggest aluminium plants at Kinlochleven. Visitors reach the dam along a quiet road that climbs through rugged terrain. The dam wall stands nearly 90 metres high with a crest at more than 300 metres above sea level. Concrete markers near the site recall the workers who died during construction. From the dam, the reservoir stretches eight miles through the hills, its dark water framed by steep slopes. A small modern hydro scheme now sits at the base of the dam, adding to the landscape’s industrial history.