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Blackwater Dam

Kinlochleven was the second largescale hydroelectric project in Scotland. Like its predecessor at Foyers it was built to power an aluminium smelter. Aluminium is smelted by electrolysis and as a metal high in the electrochemical series, the process requires vast quantities of cheap electricity. The scheme was built in the first decade of the twentieth century at some cost to life. There is a graveyard below the dam. The resulting loch is about 13km long, flooding a vast area of Rannoch Moor. The area was previously a series of small lochs in a shallow basin.