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Summary

Description

James Williamson with Sir Alexander Gibb consulting engineers, Merz and McLellan, electrical engineers, 1932-34. Long curved-section concrete gravity dam with single control tower to centre and roadway on continuous arcade of arches above spillway. Concrete parapet to roadway, with large piers flanking control tower forming buttresses to downstream face. Control tower spanning walkway with chamfered upper corners and plain metal covering to doorway (2009). Additional small tower to base of dam (E) in reinforced concrete.

Statement of Special Interest

Clatteringshaws dam is an important component of the highly influential Galloway scheme, providing water storage capacity for Glenlee Power station (see separate listing), which it supplies through a tunnel. Because of the storage function which Clatteringshaws fulfils it is also the largest dam on the Galloway Scheme. The dam was constructed on a curve for deliberate aesthetic reasons, in response to conditions regarding landscape and amenity which were set out in the parliamentary bill which allowed for the development of the scheme (see below). The dam is a combination of functional and aesthetic concerns. The strong modernist appearance of the dam clearly ties it stylistically and functionally to the power station at Glenlee (see separate listing). In addition to the fixed spillway the level of the dam can also be altered manually. The control tower gives access to the controls for a needle valve located near the base of the dam which can be opened to reduce the level of water if required. The dam was constructed from the upstream face using a series of steam cranes on a track, with concrete mixed on site at the E end of the dam. The Galloway scheme was a significant technological achievement and the first example of run of the river technology to be successfully utilised on a large scale in Scotland.

The development of the Galloway Hydroelectric Scheme predates the 1943 Hydroelectric (Scotland) Act which formalised the development of Hydroelectricity in Scotland and led to the founding of the North of Scotland Hydroelectric Board. Those developments which predated the 1943 act were developed by individual companies as a response to particular market and topographic conditions. The completion of a number of schemes (including Galloway, Grampian and those associated with the British Aluminium Company) without a national strategic policy framework is groundbreaking as is the consistency of high quality aesthetic and engineering design across all of the schemes.

The Galloway scheme was influential on the future development of hydropower in Scotland. After initial opposition to the parliamentary act granting powers for the completion of the scheme it was approved with a number of safeguards on the landscape and amenity of the area. This necessitated the high quality design of both stations and dams which characterises the Galloway scheme. This condition also proved influential during the drafting of the Hydroelectric (Scotland) Act of 1943 where the visual impact of future schemes was a primary concern.

Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners was a pioneering engineering company, responsible for a number of high profile works in Scotland, including the Kincardine Bridge (see separate listing). The company was founded by Alexander Gibb in 1921 and quickly became the UK's largest firm of consulting engineers with numerous international clients. Gibb was personally involved in the design and construction of the Galloway scheme, and the pioneering nature of the Galloway development is due, in large part, to his abilities as an engineer. Merz and McLellan were pioneering British electrical engineers and developed a high profile practice, working on a number of power stations across Britain, including Dunstan B, as well as completing hydroelectric work in Italy in the 1980s.

(Listed 2011 as part of Hydroelectric Power Thematic Survey)

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