Tongland Hydro-electric Power Station

Today's the day ........................ to dam

This is how the Tongland Power Station - one of the six stations that make up the Galloway Hydro-electric Scheme - looks today.  

They were all built between 1930 - 1936, making full use of the water from the Rivers Ken, Dee and Doon and producing a combined peak output of 106MW.  Tongland is the largest of the Power Stations and since 2022 has been undergoing a £2M refurbishment by the current owners, Drax.  The work has involved putting scaffolding round all the buildings and then fully enclosing them in shrink wrap materials.  They are now slowly emerging from this shroud - and are looking very clean and bright.

Today, the dams and stations of the Hydro Scheme are well liked, with many of them, as at Tongland, being listed buildings.  They are a source of local pride and of course are still generating environmentally-friendly electricity.  However, they were not universally admired when they were first built - as testified by a poem by a local poet, W G M Dobie .................

A raider comes today who kills
The glories of our glens and hills
With unheroic acts and bills
              and "Private Legislation"
The Company promoters pen
Will Dam the Deugh and dam the Ken
and Dam the Dee - oh Dam the men
              Who Plan such desecration!