Glen Shero

We, Mrs SJR, Caley and I, walked from the A86 roadside at Loch Laggan over the hill to Glen Shero. The water in the distance is Spey Dam reservoir.
The dam is part of the Rio Tinto Alcan hydro scheme in connection with the Fort William aluminium smelter and forms the upper most part of a catchment extending over 300 square miles.
The smelter opened in 1929 and its huge hydro electric power house was initially fed by water only from the Glen Spean system of rivers. Second Wotld War demand for aluminium led to the commissioning of an extension to the catchment; the River Spey and Strathmashie waters..
The Spey dam set up is unusual. The water by natural forces is heading east. The dam causes inundation which then backs up along a man made channel (known locally as the cut) to Loch Crunachdan. From here a tunnel takes the water under the mountain (where we walked today) south to Loch Laggan.
This part of the scheme was built primarily by Canadian Army engineers. A sad monument stands at the side of the A86 in memory of two young Cnanadian soldiers who lost their lives during its construction.

I will need to show my Dad this photo. He knows this spot very well. As a former employee of the BA (British Aluminium Company enveloped by RTA in recent times) he often did maintenance work on the various lodges and bridges on the BA estate here.
In the shadow of the pine here there was once a workers' timber accommodation building. I understand the building was moved to here from the dam site and was actually built and used by the Canadian soldiers. It is believed the timber came with them from Canada.

My Dad bought the cabin materials, effectively tidying up the site. He dismantled the building had the timber retreated and used it to build the family home in Inverlochy.