Why is the Garry like this?

The River Garry is part of the Tummel-Garry hydro electric scheme.

This started off as a private generating scheme in the 1930s but during the Second World War further plans were advanced by the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board and the scheme was greatly expanded when completed in the 1950s.

The scheme is now owned and operated by Scottish & Southern Energy plc.

As one of the first major hydro schemes to be designed in Scotland, its effects were more severe than those which came after it. The River Garry and some of its tributaries were completely denuded of water to supply water to the various reservoirs.

No other river of a comparable size in Scotland, if not the UK, has been so comprehensively destroyed by water abstraction.

The Tummel - Garry catchment showing locations of water diversions

At the top of the system is Loch Garry, from which water is drained through what can only be likened to a giant plughole in the bottom of the loch. It then flows into a tunnel which takes it through the hills to Loch Ericht

All the water which would otherwise flow out of Loch Garry is held back and the river totally dried up.

This incongrous sight of a dried up river has probably puzzled many a tourist over the years. This is the layby on the A9 at Dalnaspidal just short of Drumochter Summit. A healthy river should be flowing towards you!

Moving downstream, some flow does then enter from small sidestreams, but in times of dry weather there is still hardly any flow in the river, even several miles downstream from Loch Garry, as can clearly be seen in this photo.

Approximately 9 km below Loch Garry a second abstraction point has been installed to collect this water. The flow is checked at this weir........

......and is diverted into another tunnel, this time diverting the all water to Loch Errochty. Unless the river is very high, the river is dry immediately downstream.

This photo was taken upstream......

And this, downstream of the intake on the same day, starkly illustrating the situation.

Even downstream from the Garry Intake the larger of the side streams flowing into the Garry are abstracted.

Again every drop of water is taken.

The water from the lower streams is then piped back to the intake. This network extends as far downstream as the Bruar Water, 15km below the main Garry Intake.

Because the side streams are also taken, flow is slow to recover in the Garry. Therefore, during dry weather the Garry has very little flow down to the village of Calvine / Struan.

In total, some 13 miles (20 km) of main river between Struan and Loch Garry (13km up to first intake) plus a number of tributaries have been lost to fish and other wildlife as a result of abstraction, as well as being an eyesore.