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Summary

Description

Loch Lomond And Trossachs National Park Planning Authority

Babtie, Shaw and Morton (consulting engineers), 1963-5. Gently curved concrete gravity dam incorporating small hydro-electric power (HEP) station at base. 115 feet high and 720ft long, steeply-battered S (land) side curving to vertical at top. Flat-roofed dam-top valve house with strip windows to E of centre. Dam-top walkway with parapet and railings to W of valve house. Over-flow spillway to E of valve house with steep curved steps fanning out at base to far right with rubble wall. Small, rubble-clad HEP generating house below valve house with large picture window to S, 2-leaf timber-boarded door to W, cantilevered balcony and very shallow pitched roof. Arched tunnel entrance to dam to W of HEP station. Low concrete weir to outlet basin below dam; circular-plan viewing platform with concrete steps to W of weir. Commemorative plaque near W end of dam.

Statement of Special Interest

A good example of a concrete gravity dam, prominently situated at the head of Glen Finglas. The height of the dam, its sheer walls and clean, sinuous curves give it a striking and dramatic presence. Glen Finglas dam was built as the last phase of the Glasgow Corporation Water Works Loch Katrine scheme, the initial phase of which had been planned and built between 1856-60 by J F Bateman, the most prominent water engineer of the day. At the time of its opening it was one of the most ambitious civil engineering schemes to have been undertaken in Europe since Antiquity, employing the most advanced surveying and construction techniques available, and was admired internationally as an engineering marvel. The scheme was gradually expanded throughout the 19th and early 20th century, and an Act of Parliament allowing the creation a reservoir in Glen Finglas to keep Loch Katrine topped up was passed in 1915. Plans were drawn up and the necessary land purchased, but it wasn't until the 1950s that demand for water led to further action being taken. A modified scheme was built that took water directly from the River Turk (without reservoir back-up) by way of a 2 mile tunnel. This work was overseen by the engineer Stanley D Canvin and was opened by Princess Margaret in 1958. In the early '60s money was found to construct the reservoir, and work for the dam was carried out between 1963-5. The main contractor was Mowlem (Scotland) Ltd and the cost was about £800,000. The result of this work is that Glasgow has one of the most bountiful water supply systems in Britain. Listed following the thematic review of Loch Katrine water supply system in 2008. Listed building record updated in 2018.

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