Clatteringshaws Dam
1932 Construction work started in August 1932 and was substantially completed by June 1934, when the reservoir was already partially filled. It was part of the Galloway Water Power Scheme and is the largest dam in the Galloway Hydro-Electric Scheme. This structure dams the River Dee, and crosses the boundary between the parishes of Minnigaff and Kells. It forms a major element of stage I of the Galloway Hydro-Electric Scheme, supplying water through the Glenlee tunnel to Glenlee Power Station.
The dam is a gravity structure built of mass concrete, 1500 ft [457m] long and about 75ft [22.9m] above the original ground level at its highest point. It has been built on a slight curve, rather than straight, for aesthetic reasons. Across the central 400ft [122m] of the dam, the space below the arches is void, the concrete being shaped to the form of a spillway.
At the centre of the dam, there has been built across the footway a small valve house, from which access is gained (by means of a flight of steps down the face of the dam) to a hand-operated 5ft [1.5m] diameter disperser needle valve situated beneath a reinforced concrete shelter at the downstream base of the dam. The operating gear of the valve is located on the roof of the shelter.
Water from the reservoir reaches the valve through a 6ft [1.8m] diameter steel pipe embedded in the concrete, having a cast iron bellmouth at the upstream end, which can be closed when necessary by an emergency fee roller gate operated from the valve house above. Besides the known disperser valve, there is a smaller subsidiary valve connected to the body of the main valve for the occasional supply of compensation water to the river downstream.
The dam was constructed using heavy steam jib cranes, of up to 15 tons capacity, which ran on rails behind the dam and were supplied with concrete from a crushing and mixing plant near the E end. Two temporary openings, each measuring 15ft [4.5m] wide by 10ft [3m] high, were left void in the base of the dam, steel reinforcing bars being inserted in the concrete around them. The dam was initially built up in sections about 50ft [15m] long, with closing spaces about 6ft [1.8m] wide between them. These were infilled after the concrete of the main blocks had cooled and contracted.
Contractors for Clatteringshaws dam and aqueduct were Shanks and McEwan Ltd.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Canmore