Tongland Dam

Today's the day ……………………. for a resource

I joined the Public Library in Kirkcudbright today.

I don't know why I haven't done it before, given that we've been here a couple of years now?  But today, I was in there getting my flu jab (along with all the other elderly folk) and I thought that it might be a good idea.  It was very easy because they just added it somehow to my Bus Pass - and then, at a stroke, I had access to this wonderful resource of information and entertainment.  I could have spent hours in there, leafing through books - and I could have borrowed dozens of them.  But in the end I chose one by George Hill entitled 'Tunnel and Dam - the Story of the Galloway Hydros'. 

I've blipped the Tongland Hydro-Electric Power Station - which is just up the road from us - many times.  We even went on a special guided-tour round it once.  But I am never likely to see what was on the front cover of that book because it is now completely hidden away from the public eye.  It is the dam which was built up-stream from the Power Station to provide the necessary flow of water which produces the hydro-electricity.  They also built a fish ladder (on the left of the photo and in the extra) to allow the salmon to get up the River Dee to spawn.

It's a fascinating book altogether and I'm going to enjoy finding out a bit more about that ambitious and forward-looking project that started in the 1930s and today provides enough renewable energy to power up to 218,000 homes …………………..