was wondering when some of the dams were constructed and finished were there any stocking of brown trout. i know that a lot of lochs were already there so they would just flood to much bigger lochs. was having a wee look but could not find anything about trout. a lot about salmon and fish ladders and fish lifts ect. i would think it must have brought up the avg weight on new flood lochs for a few season as fish would be grazing on submerged fields. but if it was a river that was not too a good trout river would the hydro have stocked some fish into the dam. although there is as i said a lot of praise from hydro how they help out the salmon there words i remember many times over the years going north up he a9 on fishing trips my auld dad saying look at the river garry the perthshire one thats knackerd it was a great salmon river he would tell me long before my time so i just took his word for it not sure cheers andy m
The Perthshire Garry is fecked for all species by the abstraction of water.
On other (I cannot speak for all) hydro systems trout, pike and charr populations were unaffected by dam building- the majority of which took place from the early 1950's to 1960's.
There was little (if any) stocking of trout, and the populations recovered well enough. You might be correct on the increase of average trout weight- the British record for a fly-caught trout was established a few years after the creation of Inchlaggan as a loch, previously that had been a meandering part of the Highland River Garry.
Salmon was, and is, another matter. Take a look at the Ness and District Salmon Fisheries Board website for what is being done today to repair the damage to salmon fishing above the Invergarry dam.
thanks inchlaggan, do you know what year loch quoich dam was constructed and if it was a river or there was a loch already there that was just expanded to its current size. thats the problem some of these highland lochs are very big lochs so it must have affected the fishing for a good few years for the fish to spread out into a change and size by thousand of acres in some cases of certain new dams. intresting about the pike and char in loch garry you mentioned were they present in the river garry pre hydro cheers andy m
Quoich dam was around 1960, there was a smaller Loch Quoich before the dam. There was also a Loch Garry before the dam, both expanded in area/volume. Pike and charr in both the old and new lochs.
Suggest you try and track down a copy of Power From The Glens. This book details all sorts of info about the various scheme collection and generations.
The River Garry extraction on the A9 below Drumochter is being removed at the moment and might help restore the flow levels down stream.
thanks inchlaggan thought about loch garry as a loch that must have been there after i posted when you mentioned char cheers andy
bob fly that might be a good book to try and get. well hope what you are saying about the river garry could be good news. might still take a long time for it to become a decent river but has to be a long over due fix to a river thats i have seen as a mere trickle in my lifetime 49 years cheers andy
Having had a quick check, Power From The Glens can be downloaded from the Scottich Hydro Electric website, or at least it could a few years back. That gives details for each scheme. There is another book called "The Dam Builders - Power From The Glens" which I think is by Ian Martin and that is a different publication and more about the works involved and the people working on the schemes.
here's a PDF that's available to download.
http://sse.com/media/87078/powerfromtheglens.pdf (http://sse.com/media/87078/powerfromtheglens.pdf)
thanks for that clan chief will get a read of that
Quote from: Clan Chief on September 22, 2017, 12:26:34 AM
here's a PDF that's available to download.
http://sse.com/media/87078/powerfromtheglens.pdf (http://sse.com/media/87078/powerfromtheglens.pdf)
I would also recommend Jim Miller's absolutely excellent book "The Dam Builders; Power from the Glens" published by Birlinn [ https://www.birlinn.co.uk/The-Dam-Builders-9781841582252.html ]
The new SSE Pitlochry Dam visitors centre is also well worth a visit, apart from being an absolutely stunning building, the exhibition/films shown are great!
Quote from: tomcatin on September 23, 2017, 12:39:33 AM
I would also recommend Jim Miller's absolutely excellent book "The Dam Builders; Power from the Glens" published by Birlinn [ https://www.birlinn.co.uk/The-Dam-Builders-9781841582252.html ]
The new SSE Pitlochry Dam visitors centre is also well worth a visit, apart from being an absolutely stunning building, the exhibition/films shown are great!
There is a Kindle edition which I have on my tablet.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dam-Builders-Power-Glens-ebook/dp/B009KL4SXU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506148012&sr=1-1&keywords=the+dam+builders
It's sobering reading that document. The minuscule generation capacity compared to the massive environmental destruction these dams caused was no doubt acceptable at the time, but one wonders if it would be as welcome now. The Monar dam in particular was an act of extreme ecological vandalism and destroyed Scotland's best scenic location, pre-dam it was special in a way few other places in Scotland are.
Roughly 10-12% of Scottish generation from hydro schemes. Not too much for all the dams and the work that was done. A large number of run of river and mini-hydro going in over the last couple of years to get in before the subsidised payment rate is cut off. All very "green" but, like the wind turbines, it is the energy company and the landowner who make the most and we pay the extra and "enjoy" the benefit of the policy makers' initiatives :roll:
QuoteThe Monar dam in particular was an act of extreme ecological vandalism and destroyed Scotland's best scenic location, pre-dam it was special in a way few other places in Scotland are.
Fred i think this has been mentioned before on another thread but this book is excellent ..all about life prior to the flooding .....well worth a good read
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Quote from: admin on September 23, 2017, 09:11:22 PM
It's sobering reading that document. The minuscule generation capacity compared to the massive environmental destruction these dams caused was no doubt acceptable at the time, but one wonders if it would be as welcome now. The Monar dam in particular was an act of extreme ecological vandalism and destroyed Scotland's best scenic location, pre-dam it was special in a way few other places in Scotland are.
I mind going to meet the SSE coal buyer in their old Georgian office in Athol Place, Perth (now a Perth & Kinross Council office) and being ushered into the boardroom. The walls were covered in gilt framed oil paintings of lochs and mountains ...... turns out the old Hydro Board commissioned them as the oil painting equivalent of a photomontage to persuade landowners that there would be no long lasting impact on the landscape (conveniently they were all full!)
When commissioned the Affric-Beauly was seen as progress bringing literally power to the glens; I suspect if proposed in 2017 it would be a mighty battle to get through the planning system. With hindsight some of the planning for these schemes was terrible, particularly the use of mass concrete dams, overland penstocks and the excessive water extraction.
Beware of greed dressed in "green" clothing and remember that the political puppets who push these schemes are gone and forgotten in a decade. The legacy of their ecological vandalism stays with us for many lifetimes and perhaps forever. It seems we learn nothing.
Quote from: superscot on September 23, 2017, 11:58:45 PM
Fred i think this has been mentioned before on another thread but this book is excellent ..all about life prior to the flooding .....well worth a good read
I have that book Colin. It is both excellent and brutal in its depiction of life in the glen pre hydro-vandalism.