Galloway hydro-electric power scheme

The scheme was authorized by the '''''' (19 & 20 Geo. 5. c. lxxx) on 10 May 1929, by which the Galloway Water Power Company was incorporated. Chairman of the board was former colonial administrator Lord Meston. Also on the board was Robert Brand, managing director of the project's underwriter, Lazard Brothers and Company. Design was carried out by civil engineers Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners along with electrical engineer, William McLellan of Merz & McLellan. Construction began three years later in 1932 and was completed in 1936. The scheme was made viable by the recent formation of the National Grid which made generation of electricity in remote areas useful. Hydro power was particularly helpful to this grid because of its ability to be turned on and off very quickly to meet peak demands (in contrast to oil and coal stations), and to meet the natural increase during the more energy demanding winter months. The total cost of the scheme was around three million pounds. At a cost of £29 per kilowatt of installed capacity, they were some of the least costly stations ever built in the UK. ==Architecture==

The stations are generally white, Modernist structures, highly glazed and with large airy turbine halls. The designs were stylistically advanced for their time and can be viewed as some of Scotland's earliest modern buildings. The credit for the design is given to Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, however it seems likely that the design received input from Harold Tarbolton, the architectural advisor to the scheme's "Amenities Committee". This committee was set up to "make to the Company such recommendations as they may think are reasonable and proper for the preservation of the beauty of the scenery" (from section 73 of the Galloway Water Power Act 1929). Tarbolton was designer of the Pitlochry power station which bears some striking similarities to the Galloway turbine halls. Whilst no direct credit for the design work can be given to him, it is unlikely that he had no influence on the outcome. In their book Power from Water (1960), two partners of Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, Angus Paton, and J. Guthrie Brown (the latter of whom is known to have worked on the Galloway scheme), write that "The architecture of the power stations, under the watchful eye of the amenity committee...was given the most careful attention." Parts of the scheme are now listed buildings, specifically the Glenlee Power Station and Bridge In great contrast to the bright pristine nature of the stations, the dams are organic and entwined with the natural rock. They are generally arch dams, curved in plan, bearing onto the side walls of the valleys except in those dams where only one side of the valley is suitable for bearing. In these latter cases, the end of the dam straightens out, and the last section of gravity dam (where the weight of the dam itself resists the force of the water) then acts like a buttress to the more efficient arch dam. ==Perceptions of the scheme==

Local poet W. G. M. Dobie wrote:{{cite book A raider comes today who kills The glories of our glens and hills With unheroic Acts and Bills And "private legislation": The company promoters' pen Will dam the Deugh and dam the Ken And dam the Dee, - oh, damn the men Who plan such desecration! ==Generating stations==

The six generating stations, from north to south, are: ==References==