The Cour

I'm pleased M's new boots worked well today. While spared yesterday's pouring rain the underfoot conditions at Leanachan would have engulfed the old pair in minutes.

We are in the middle of Leanachan Forest here.

These two burns combine and run north to the River Spean. This final 2km length of river is known as "The Cour". Looking at the photograph the flow from the right is quite savage and fast moving yet this arm drains the relatively low lying swamp land of Leanachan. The left tributary is itself the result of the coming together of two mountain burns which drain a huge chunk of the north slopes of the Grey Corries. It is fed from both rain and snow melt. However its flow looks uncharacteristically low given the recent heavy rain. This is because both of its main feeds are dammed -Intakes 6 and 7- for hydro electric power. Modern hydro developments often have constraints on the "depleted reach"; the length of river over which water can be borrowed before being returned to the same water course. This is particularly the case when the burn runs flat. The Grey Corries water, other than what gets spilled as deliberate compensation, doesn't get returned till it gets to the Fort William works tail race less than a mile from the sea.

I don't make this observation in any critical way, just to explain the photograph. The scheme is relatively unobtrusive and provides green energy to one of Lochaber's biggest employers.