Quoich Dam And Intake Gatehouse Towers, Great Glen Hydro Electric Scheme, Caol and Mallaig, Highland

Description

Probably James Williamson and Partners (engineers to the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board technical panel); W M Halcrow and Partners (principal contractors) and James Shearer (architect to NoSHEB architectural panel), 1955. Large mass earth fill dam with tunnel intake and spillway intake towers adjacent to upstream face at right (N) and small turbine hall to base at centre of downstream face. Earth fill dam with coursed rubble downstream face and reinforced concrete upstream face. Battered profile to both faces. Concrete parapet to top flanking vehicular access roadway. Parapet to walkways elsewhere including balustraded sections.

DISPERSAL VALVE INTAKE GATEHOUSE: small rectangular-plan gatehouse adjacent to upstream face of dam at centre; supported on concrete piers with access deck oversailing upstream face of dam. Reinforced concrete construction with entrance doorway to centre of E elevation and single multi-pane metal windows to centre of other elevations.

COMPENSATION SET TURBINE HALL: small single storey rectangular-plan 3-bay turbine hall set to centre of base of downstream face oversailing dispersal valve and tail race on shouldered concrete arches. Coursed random rubble. Stepped banded base course and corniced eaves course. 3 tall recessed windows with ashlar surrounds to E elevation; large vehicular access doorway to N elevation with similar surround. Cantilevered walkway to front (E) with shaped concrete copes to parapet with balusters to centre. INTERIOR: predominantly functional plain interior. Small pane metal windows in painted metal frames. Flat roof.

SPILLWAY AND TUNNEL INTAKE GATEHOUSES: pair of adjacent deep single-storey rectangular-plan gatehouses adjacent to upstream side of dam at right (N). Coursed random rubble. Banded base courses and corniced eaves courses. Irregular recessed fenestration in ashlar surrounds with some small louvered vents. Large boarded teak vehicular access doors to principal elevations. Gatehouse to east integrated with coursed random rubble boundary wall. Small pane metal windows in painted metal frames. Flat roofs.

Statement of Interest

Quoich Dam dominates the upper reaches of the River Garry and is an unusual example of a dam designed for the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board with the input of an architect as well as engineer. The dam provides storage capacity and flow regulation for Quoich Power Station which forms part of the Great Glen hydro electric scheme, one of the major post-war hydro electric developments by the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board (NoSHEB). The dam is a good example of a large mass earth dam, and on completion was the largest of its kind in Scotland at 125 feet high and 1050 feet long. The core of the dam is made from compacted earth contained by a waterproof reinforced concrete wall on the upstream face and a coursed rubble downstream face of high quality coursed masonry. This construction method represented a significant saving in materials over a conventional concrete mass gravity dam. As a consequence of the rubble downstream face the dam cannot spill in the conventional manner, instead water enters a tunnel at the spillway intake gatehouse and is discharged into a spillway to the right (N) of the dam carved from the bedrock.

Great Glen was one of a large number of schemes developed in Scotland by the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board (NoSHEB), formed after 1943 as a nationalised body to oversee the development of Scotland's resources for water power. The scheme played a key role in the realisation of the social agenda of NoSHEB by providing power to a remote community. Power generated on schemes in the southern Highlands, such as Tummel (see separate listings) was exported via the grid to the central belt, the profit from which subsidised the provision of power to remote north Highland communities and stimulated economic regeneration. Under the leadership of eminent chairman Sir Tom Johnston the board undertook developments throughout Highland Scotland and his aspirations saw the development of schemes in locations such as Loch Dubh near Ullapool and Storr Lochs on Skye. Johnston's social aspirations and wider wishes to reinvigorate the economy of the Highlands ensured that schemes in remote areas formed a key part of the NoSHEB development plan.

All of the developments carried out by NoSHEB were subject to parliamentary approval and objections on the grounds of scenic amenity were common. In order to meet these objections the board appointed a panel of architectural advisers which included Reginald Fairlie (1883-1952), James Shearer (1881-1962) and Harold Ogle Tarbolton (1869-1947), appointed in 1943. Initially the role of the panel was to adjudicate on competition entries for designs, but by 1947 it had become one of designers. The panel had little control over the functional form of the buildings, as they left this to engineers, but they did influence the appearance and the style of the designs. The rigid views on the roles of engineers and architects during the design process resulted in the development of a style which can be characterised as vernacular modernism. This style is characteristic of many NoSHEB buildings and is a direct product of the strict role which engineers and architects played in the design process and of the increasing desire to harmonise buildings with the landscape. In the design of Quoich Dam the engineering role was particularly prominent due to the innovative nature and scale of the construction, with the architectural approach of the board at this time informing the rubble cladding of a number of the associated buildings such as intake gatehouses.

Early in the life of the board, following the death of Tarbolton in 1947, and Fairlie's death relatively soon after in 1952, Shearer was able to exert more control on the direction of the architectural style. In line with increasing public concerns over the impact of developments on scenic amenity by the early to mid 1950s the designs for the board began to move away from the confident classical modernism under the control of James Shearer. Shearer spent the early part of his career in the offices of John Burnet and Son in Glasgow before commencing private practice in 1907. He gained a number of high profile commissions, and in partnership with George Annand from 1949 the practice were responsible for some iconic post-war architecture, including David Marshall Lodge in Aberfoyle (see separate listing). Shearer also produced a significant number of designs for NoSHEB schemes, the combination of rugged rubble facings and functional forms with carefully applied architectural features, many derived from vernacular styles, were a conscious effort to meld the new structures into the landscape and stylistically a number of compositions echo the work of his early mentor Burnet. The designs for NoSHEB also show the influence of Dutch architect, Willem Marinus Dudok, who Shearer visited in 1952 whilst representing the Royal Scottish Academy.

(Listed 2011 as part of Hydroelectric Power Thematic Survey)

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