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This
is a view south over Loch Lomond, from a point near the car park.
All of the pictures are thumbnails, click to see a larger version
of any of them.
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This
was taken from the car park. The peak is called 'A Chrois', it's
around 850 metres high.
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There's
a large hydroelectric power station at this point along the loch,
you can see the huge pipes that carry water down from loch Sloy
traveling high up the hillside. The building is plain but quite
imposing.
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The
power station building reflected in the pool of water at the front,
this is the outlet where the water is expelled. It was calm when
I took the picture so the power station was probably asleep.
"A tunnel 3 km long carries water from Loch Sloy through Ben
Vorlich, which towers almost 940 km above Loch Lomond to the valve
house immediately above Sloy power station. From here the water
plunges down the side of the mountain through four large pipelines
into the power station at Inveruglas Bay on the shores of Loch
Lomond." Extract from here
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The
gate at the start of the track had this cool chain, covered in
padlocks.
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Ben
Vane, 915 Metres
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Some
cattle, lurking on the road.
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Some
of the cattle looked quite young, I wondered if their mothers would
trample me if they thought I was a threat to the kids...
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The
dam looms into view.
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Before
I got to the dam, I noticed this tunnel cut into the rock, the
gate was locked though.
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I
used a 12 second exposure on the camera to take this picture, zoomed
deep onto the tunnel. The echoing drips sounded interesting.
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The
dam
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Some
of these pictures have been equalised quite severely, as it was
quite dark and the landscape looked really dark in a few of the
pictures.
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Standing
inside one of the huge alcoves in the dam. Any noise inside this
created some nice echo's.
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Danger,
High Voltage
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dam is 56 metres high and 357 metres long.
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I
made my way up the steep hill at the NE side of the dam.
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The
view from the dam of Glen Uglas, from where I had approached the
loch. The river that runs out of Loch Sloy is called the Inveruglas
Water.
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View
along the top of the dam. The Side I approached from had no warning
signs, at the other end, however, there were signs forbidding entry.
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Nice
view NE along Loch Sloy
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There
was a concrete building in the middle of the dam which must have
been a control centre, this is a picture of the steps leading into
the water from it. There was a radar device on the other side of
the building that was (I assume) used to measure the surface height
of the water. It made a weird chirping sound every second or so.
It sounded a little like the noise a bat makes when it is catching
insects.
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A
vertigo inducing picture over the side of the dam, down into one
of the many huge alcoves.
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I
found a tunnel cut through the rock that I couldn't resist investigating.
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Apparently
you're not allowed in (according to the signs) because the inner
surface isn't lined, it's just rough bedrock. The rock of this
area is all metamorphic, heavily folded and frequently streaked
with milky quartz veins.
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I
had planned to get to the loch later on in the day, as the sun
was going down in order to get some pictures with interesting light.
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This
is a detail of Ben Vorlich, taken from the west side of the water.
The sun is setting and Beinn Dubh is casting a huge shadow over
the loch onto the other side.
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Last
picture of the loch with some nice light. I realised it was starting
to get dark and I was miles from the car park, so it was time to
roll.
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Nice
symmetry and reflections. I think this is the pool where the dam
would flow out into. The valve in the middle, just above the water,
was leaking out a fine spray that must have been under a lot of
pressure, you could hear it from way over the pool.
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I
had quite a walk back through the dark valley, with the hills watching
me on either side.
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