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Help naming a Scottish dam with a fish lift
Mr Whippy - 14/2/22 at 12:36 PM

Hi, we've been stuck trying to name this dam and where it is.

It is I think on the west coast side of Scotland and is a bit unusual in that inside it has a very large chute which they shut the sluice gate at the bottom and it fills up to lift the fish to the top of the dam. There is a big glass window that you can look out of to see all this happening and watch the fish swim past.

Can anyone name the dam??

Thanks in advance


adithorp - 14/2/22 at 12:48 PM

FishyMcFishlift... DammyMcDam?


coyoteboy - 14/2/22 at 01:17 PM

Are you talking about Pitlochry on the river Tummel?

That's not a huge dam, but it has a nice little fish thang where you can watch the fish going through, and it counts them on camera.


hughpinder - 14/2/22 at 02:11 PM

Was it one like the first design in this document?
https://www.kmae-journal.org/articles/kmae/pdf/2002/04/kmae2002364s102.pdf


Affric/Beauly have dams with lifts at Aigas and Kilmorack of the Borland type, but not sure if you can view the fish there?

Regards
Hugh


nick205 - 14/2/22 at 04:24 PM

Is there a main fish type it'll be lifting?

If so can you use that to form a name?


Slater - 14/2/22 at 05:07 PM

River Tummel in Pitlochry does have a glass window in a special viewing room so you can see the fish going past.

eta Link below....

Linker

[Edited on 14-2-22 by Slater]


Mr Whippy - 15/2/22 at 07:27 AM

Hmm that is interesting thanks , it looks like Pitlochry does indeed have the same type of fish lift (fish lock as it seems to be called) as I'm thinking of, except the damn was a really huge concrete thing on the west coast, I think near Fort William. The tunnel was also several meters larger and so long it vanished into the distance, plus the viewing window horizontal and above my head when I was a kid. But otherwise the just the same idea.



We've been to the Pitlochry dam a quite a few years back in 2011 where we spotted this opportunistic Heron



At least I now know what this things are called which should make it easier to search for. Thanks

[Edited on 15/2/22 by Mr Whippy]


Cannonball - 17/2/22 at 03:10 PM

Yep, both KIlmorack and Aigas dams have fishlifts. There is an interesting man made V about half a mile down stream from Kilmorack using an island in the river where the salmon used to be netted as they could not pass upstream when the river was low without human intervention. Water could still flo but not enough for the fish to pass. Morar dam which is tiny in comparison and is over on the west coast. It has a small fish ladder just visible on the right of river.


https://www.sserenewables.com/news-and-views/2018/12/70-years-since-first-highland-hydro-switch-ons/


Cannonball - 17/2/22 at 03:13 PM

Yep, both KIlmorack and Aigas dams have fishlifts. There is an interesting man made V about half a mile down stream from Kilmorack using an island in the river where the salmon used to be netted as they could not pass upstream when the river was low without human intervention. Water could still flo but not enough for the fish to pass. Morar dam which is tiny in comparison and is over on the west coast. It has a small fish ladder just visible on the right of river.


https://www.sserenewables.com/news-and-views/2018/12/70-years-since-first-highland-hydro-switch-ons/


https://www.fishingthefly.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6103.0