My personal connection to Loch Ness hydro scheme at Foyers as it marks 50th anniversary
The pumped storage hydro power station at Foyers is this year marking 50 years since it began producing power. It was officially unveiled by the then Secretary of State for Scotland, William Ross, on April 3, 1975.
The imposing building that juts out into Loch Ness close to the village – the most visible part of the whole operation today – could well be joined by others around this vast expanse of water if renewable energy developers get their way.
Construction on the “Red John” scheme near Dores on the same side of Loch Ness is due to start in 2026. Now being managed by Statkraft and known as the Loch na Cathrach project, it would have a capacity of at least 450MW, compared to the 300MW produced at Foyers.
There are also proposals – as yet undecided – to develop two further pumped storage hydro schemes on Loch Ness. Statera Energy is seeking planning consent for its Loch Kemp Storage project, which would be another pumped storage hydro facility on the south side of Loch Ness, near Whitebridge, with the capability of producing 600MW of energy.
Then Glen Earrach Energy has submitted an application to Scottish ministers for a massive 2GW pumped storage hydro plant on the other side of the loch, at Balmacaan south of Drumnadrochit, which it says will be one of the UK’s largest and most efficient energy storage schemes.
This surge in interest in hydro power around Loch Ness has encouraged me to look more closely at my own very personal connection to the Foyers scheme, which began construction in 1969.
When I first moved to Inverness nearly 18 years ago, I would cycle from Loch Mhor, through Gleann Liath and down through Foyers where I could spot the outflows and tunnels that my Grandpa had played a pivotal role in developing.
Donald Hitchings was the project manager for the contractor on the scheme, Nuttals.
At home I have a folder of his engineering drawings – and they really are hand-drawn scale depictions, shaded with coloured pencils – that were part of the original design for the project; no computerised simulations or visualisations in those days.
They show the planned changes to the upper reservoir at Loch Mhor, the engineering required to tunnel down the several hundred metres to Loch Ness far below, including rail routes to extract the debris, and even the power station itself on Loch Ness.
There is a family story that has been passed down that the foundations for the building were redesigned after my Grandpa, on behalf of his company, insisted on digging deeper boreholes as there was a concern that the geology of the landscape meant the bedrock would not support the power station’s weight.
The story goes that when they went deeper they realised his theory was correct – that the bedrock folded back inland, leaving a gaping hole below the supposedly solid bedrock foundations. The whole building could have been lost to the loch if these deeper foundations hadn’t been included before the work began in earnest.
My dad, Donald’s son-in-law, who visited the site several times on visits to Balloch, where my Grandma and Grandpa lived during their time in Inverness, remembers that they had to add steel bores and backfilling with concrete to strengthen the foundations. He believes the issue led to a legal case over who would pay the costs, the hydro board or the contractor.
I always remember my Grandpa as a man who knew about science and engineering, as well as woodwork. I would spend hours in his garage as a youngster where he taught me some basic woodwork, using proper techniques and joints. At the time, I hadn’t quite appreciated the depth of his knowledge and experience, but he clearly had a scientific mind.
I expect he would be fascinated by modern techniques to design the new hydro schemes through the Great Glen. Computer modelling and such like seems a long way from the geological diagrams that feature in his drawings from the late sixties.
The Foyers scheme was intended to make use of surplus electricity generated by Hunterston B nuclear power station in North Ayrshire, once the latter began operating in 1976.
These days, new hydro schemes are so popular – with developers at least – because they can help balance the energy supply to the national grid which has more and more irregular renewable energy production from wind farms and other non-fossil fuel generation.
Foyers has two pump-turbines that at full capacity can each discharge over 200 tonnes of water per second into Loch Ness. In an average year, the station – which is now remotely operated – can produce electricity for around 68,000 homes.
My Grandpa would have seen the landscape between Foyers and the scheme’s upper reservoir at Loch Mhor change dramatically. Forests were cleared, tracks bulldozed and bedrock drilled and blasted through.
Now, I cycle, walk and run past much of the related infrastructure that is a lasting legacy from the scheme, from the Loch Mhor reservoir to the tunnels, which emerge above ground briefly through Gleann Liath, to the power cables that pass underground as well as above head via pylons.
During the felling of the trees, my uncle David – Donald’s eldest son – tells me that there was a huge oak tree that unfortunately had to be cut down. Grandpa had his eye on it and asked for it to be “kept aside” for him.
“It was seasoned for four years in the corner of a workshop,” David tells me. That oak became a piece of furniture that was well known by all his children and grandchildren, including myself. I hadn’t realised until these recent conversations that he had made a coffee/games table that used to sit in his living room himself, out of an oak tree from the forests above Foyers, so close to where I now live.
My dad shared the same story with me, and my Auntie Mary now has the table at home in the Lake District.
During the works on the upper reservoir, the water in Loch Mhor had to be drained and the remains of a crannog were discovered below the usual water line.
From the loch, there are two miles of tunnels and shafts that were created under my Grandpa’s watch at Foyers. I’m even told that John, his other son besides David, worked for a season on the project as a chain lad in a summer between college terms.
The photographs taken inside sections of the tunnels and generator housing show the scale of the works. My dad remembers walking through parts of the tunnels on one of his visits.
Another story he tells is about a Hogmanay drive north up the old A9, where he had to follow a snow plough up and over the Slochd in deep snow that was still falling before being left to make his own way across Culloden Moor to reach Balloch.
“It was awful,” recalls my Auntie Mary, who was a passenger in my dad’s car that night, along with my late mum. “The heater in that car never worked! It took forever and it was freezing cold.”
My grandparents actually left the area before the official opening, in 1973 according to Mary. They moved to Sussex, which is where they lived when I knew them as a youngster. This was because Grandpa worked at BAM Nuttall’s head office at London Victoria, and Haywards Heath in Sussex was a railway station on the line into the city.
“His job was finding and assessing projects,” Mary explained. “He would put in bids for potential projects and went to places such as Hong Kong, Singapore etc. He went to Sri Lanka with Balfour Beatty – and then they got the job, so he ended up going there.”
This is part of the story I know, as I went to Sri Lanka as a three-year-old boy to visit my grandparents out there – but that’s a whole different tale with twists and turns of its own…
Mary told me: “He liked having a big project to manage and plan – and he was very good at that.”
Foyers was just one of many projects he fulfilled, but it’s one that’s close to home for me and something that often reminds me of his legacy whenever I head down the south side of Loch Ness.
It also gives me a direct connection to the area and its human history, to see the house where he stayed in Balloch and think how Inverness has changed since they left in the early seventies – almost a whole decade before the Kessock Bridge was even built.
Robert Bryce, director of hydro at SSE Renewables, said: “Foyers power station has played an important role in the UK’s energy mix since it opened in 1975, and its importance continues to this day.
“As we move to more intermittent forms of energy such as onshore wind, offshore wind and solar generation, flexible pumped storage hydro facilities such as Foyers help to balance the grid and utilise excess renewable energy in the system.”
The energy landscape has changed extensively since 50 years ago, but the work my Grandpa did here at Foyers remains relevant and useful, and that is certainly an achievement to be proud of.
• If anybody remembers working with Donald Hitchings at Foyers, John would be interested in hearing from you via john.davidson@hnmedia.co.uk
• Active Outdoors returns next week.