The Shin Hydro Electric Scheme, Lairg, Sutherland

Shin Hydro Electric Scheme

The 1950s saw a number of hydro-electric power schemes built throughout the Highlands. The most northerly is the Shin Hydro-Electric Power scheme, producing 38 megawatts of power.

Construction began in 1954 and the scheme was completed and generating power by 1959. Loch Shin - already a large loch - was dammed to provide a reservoir and the level of the water was raised by 11 metres.

There are a number of power stations in the scheme. The smallest is the half megawatt station of Duchally at the head of Glen Cassley. Water from here then travels through a two and a half mile long tunnel to Cassley Power Station on the western shore of Loch Shin. This station generates ten megawatts.

The Loch Shin Dam at Lairg contains another, smaller, generating station producing about three and a half megawatts. The main station is the Shin Power Station at Inveran, about six miles south of Lairg, which has an output of twenty four megawatts. This station takes its water directly from Loch Shin through a long tunnel.