A Marvel of Engineering

[tom061087]

Have often had glimpses of the Blackwater dam from afar but never quite managed to get up close.

Last weekend we headed north despite the doom and gloom weather forecasts and set up camp at the Caolusnacon campsite just short of Kinlochleven (I've yet to find another campsite anywhere which has such a spectacular setting, and at £10 a night for a small two man tent and within 15 mins drive of 20-30+ munros and corbetts it is very highly reccomended).

Warm sun got us out of the tent fairly early in the morning, and we headed to Kinlochleven. We parked at the grey mare's tail car park out of habit (there are probably better, closer places to park) and started off towards the west highland way, passing the green shed and leaving the west highland way to join the path up the north side of the glen.

This part of the walk was enjoyable enough with highlights being the 2 or 3 spectacular cascades we crossed. From the rather dry main river bed it was clear that a full spate must be a sight to behold, not today though.

It seemed mush farther than the map suggests to reach the dam, eventually arriving approx 8.5km from the start. The dam really is spectacular and as a Civil Engineer I find it mindblowing that this was built with very little in the way of powered machinery.

As stated in this guide, the route across dam is blocked by locked gates at either end. However, make your own mind up about this but we decided that the most dangerous thing about crossing the dam was climbing the gates, which can be done safely enough with care. The alternative, walking below the dam, looked considerably more dangerous and I didn't like the idea of crossing below the dam outlet which could for all we knew unleash a torrent of water at any time!

So over the gate and along the dam it was, the walkway has good handrails either side so no real chance of a mishap although don't look over the edge if you are particularly scared of heights...one unusual thing to note is that the spillway on this dam is the crest of the dam, i.e. if the dam is overflowwing then you would be walking through a torrent of water which would certainly be very unnerving.

The dam is over 900m long and by walking along it you get a true sense of the scale of the thing. The gate at the south end is equally easy to scale, and is also less exposed to a drop than the north end.

We started to walk down the track on the south side of the glen which follows the line of the conduit, a concrete box carrying water to the power station. The conduit is covered with concrete slabs presumably to prevent it clogging with snow drifts in the winter, and these slabs looked a very tempting level walkway, particularly as my partner was struggling with her new boots.

The warning signs simply state "persons using this structure do so at their own risk", there are foot prints and bike tracks all over it and some of the access points to control huts along the way can only be reached by walking along it so we decided it was safe enough to walk on, however again please make up your own mind whether you want to do this. Note that it did rain for a short time while we were on it and the concrete did become pretty slippy at this point.

What I will say is it made a fantastic platform, perched at 300m right on the edge of the glen and at times crossing sizeable aqueducts (with no edge protection, again not for anyone too troubled by heights). It really is quite a surreal experience at times. Every so often a gap in the slabs lets you catch a glimpse of the water shooting past in the full-to-the-brim conduit below.

Eventually we came to the end of the conduit, where the penstocks begin, and rejoined the track which almost immediately becomes the west highland way. After a seemingly endless amount of zigzagging we caught a glimpse of the top of the penstocks high above, approximately 1/4 of the distance away we would have expected! A few more steep but easy sections of descent on a good track later, we were crossing the river leven again and back to the car.

All in all a really enjoyable days walk, but as someone else has commented its not a "walk in the park". We certainly felt just as exhausted as we would after your average munro or two. If you have a penchant for feats of engineering, seeing this dam in the flesh and appreciating just how isolated and impressive in scale it is, is a must.

[Graeme D]

A good read. I have always liked the idea of a walk in across that dam on the way in to some of the hills in the area.

[trekker53]

3 of us did this walk on May 23rd 2011. It was our yearly jolly to the hills. The forecast was extreme storms so we couldn't go high. Let's go to the dam instead. All the burns were raging coming down the hills. Some being particarly bad to cross. We had to gain ascent to find suitable crossing points. Eventually got to the dam. Before then we never really noticed the wind, but crossing the dam was quite horrendous. Luckily there was safety rails as we held on and kept low. At the far side we met 3 other walkers and suggested they turn back due to the fast flowing burns. The walk back on the south side was easy but we were walking into the strong wind and driving rain.
The thought of hot showers, warmth and food back at the Blackwater hostel kept our spirits high. It was a struggle but eventually we were at the hostel. On entering all wet and bedraggled a member of staff said there is a power cut and it could last for several hours. Oh no, that's all we need. There was one option, go to bed to warm up.
Some time later we had some cold food that was for our lunches on the following days. Took a walk to find an open bar. Luckily the Tail Race was open, the power still off, we drunk bottled beers and enjoyed listening to an impromptu music session. Very late the power came back on to the relief of us all.
It seems large parts of Scotland suffered some power cuts though some lasted longer than others.
A memorable day for the wrong reasons.