Shira Hydro-Electric Scheme

The Shira Hydro-Electric Scheme is a project initiated by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board to use the waters of the River Shira, the River Fyne and other small streams to generate hydroelectricity. It is located between Loch Fyne and Loch Awe in Argyll and Bute, western Scotland. It consists of three power stations and three impounding dams. The remoteness of the area in which the scheme was built required 15 miles (24 km) of access roads to be built before the main works could begin. The three dams were all of different types; a round headed buttress dam; a concrete gravity and earth fill dam; and the first ever use of a prestressed gravity dam. The construction of the earth fill dam was hindered by four months of extremely wet weather. Clachan was the first large underground power station that the Board built, while Sron Mor was the first implementation of a pumped storage scheme, built in anticipation of the arrival of nuclear power generation. The power stations were commissioned in 1953, 1955 and 1957, in advance of the completion of work on the dams.