This daywalk explores the once industrially exploited but today very beautiful and peaceful Glen Leven, including a visit to the bleak and impressive Blackwater Dam.
Good paths and tracks for most of the walk, short sections of path require care when wet. The section of the walk below the dam is pathless and rough.
Regular buses to Kinlochleven from Fort William.
Kinlochleven.
Park at the car park by the Ice Factor and the Kinlochleven visitor centre. The centre is worth a visit before undertaking this walk as it tells the story of the town's history and the aluminium industry, and will help make sense of much of what you see whilst out on the route. Begin the walk by heading back to the main road and crossing the bridge over the River Leven. Turn right once over the bridge onto the West Highland Way footpath. This follows the wooded river bank, passing opposite the impressive surging waters flowing out of the hydro power station. The path then emerges on a street; turn right along it.
The street becomes a track and passes a large green shed as it heads into the woods. A short distance beyond this turn left onto a footpath heading up into the woods - signed as the Ciaran Path. After heading into the woods and then a short steep climb the path reaches a much clearer path at a t-junction. Turn right here. From here on the walk follows the delightful glen of the River Leven, which is lined with beautiful and peaceful deciduous woodland; at one point you need to cross a new hydro track. The river itself is hugely reduced in volume due to so much of the water being diverted down to the power station via the giant pipes seen on the hillside opposite, and is little more than a large stream flowing over a wide, bare rocky bed.
After a kilometre and a half the path crosses a wooden footbridge. Just beyond there is a viewpoint off to the left for a fine waterfall on the tributary stream. Continuing, there are some concrete bases and other remains of a series of buildings hidden in the woods. These are the remnants of a Prisoner of War camp dating from the first World War. German prisoners from the camp built the road from Glencoe to Kinlochleven as well as the pipeline (visited later on the walk) supplying the Blackwater reservoir from Loch Èilde Mòr . The path crosses the Allt na Duibhe below another fine waterfall.
Continue on the path, which is rough and needs care but is very clear to follow. Further on the path crosses a third stream where there are the remains of a wrecked and dangerous footbridge (it is usually easy enough to cross the stream just above), situated in a small gorge. Above here the path begins to climb up out of the woodland and onto the more open moor; the River Leven flows down a series of waterfalls over bare rocks as it issues from the Dubh lochans.
The path keeps well above the lochans and is here at its boggiest. This section doesn't last too long however, as it soon reaches the pipeline mentioned earlier. Turn right on the path alongside this old concrete pipe, which is still in use; it leads to the north end of the great Blackwater Dam. The dam was completed in 1909, built almost entirely by hand by a huge team of navvies who lived in a camp on the bleak moor. The vast reservoir is over 13 kilometres long, supplied by the pipelines as well as rainfall in its own area, and the dam itself is almost a kilometre across. All this was built to provide the enormous amount of electricity that was needed to operate the aluminium smelters in Kinlochleven.
The gate on top of the dam is locked, and to get to the track on the far side it is necessary to carefully descend to the right down the rocky, broken ground beneath the dam - or the huge concrete staircase (giant steps!) alongside it. In normal weather conditions the wide areas of water shown on the OS map do not exist on the ground. Once a little over half way across the ground beneath the dam, ascend slightly to reach a fenced area (with a building inside and a concrete culvert which carries it to the power station). Turn right alongside the fence, and at the fence corner, where the fence goes left, keep straight on to reach a place where there's a stony track over the burn. Cross the burn here and follow the faint and rough stony track until it reaches another track at a t-junction. Turn right along this; it is followed almost all the way back. The culvert carrying the water runs alongside the track and is encased in concrete.
Soon you pass a cemetery (on the right) where the navvies who died during the construction works were buried - a sad spot. Many perished when trying to walk back to the site over the Devil's Staircase following an evenings drinking at the Kingshouse. The track now follows the culvert for several kilometres, high above the south side of the valley; there are terrific views across to the Mamores. The track crosses over the culvert several times, and in places the culvert crosses aqueducts over streams flowing down from the moorland. After around five kilometres, the West Highland Way joins in from the left.
A short distance there are a series of buildings situated at the end of the culvert. From here the water flows into the series of giant pipes seen earlier, which carry it straight down into the valley, gathering a tremendous force to power the turbines at Kinlochleven. The track curves round to the left and descends in a series of more gentle zig-zags. Keep to the main track and West Highland Way, ignoring smaller tracks off to the right and left. Once down in the valley the track comes alongside the pipelines and then crosses them on a bridge. Once across this bridge, turn left between the river and the old Aluminium factory to return to Kinlochleven.
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