place

Foyers, Highland

Ness basinPopulated places in Inverness committee area
River Foyers geograph.org.uk 170547
River Foyers geograph.org.uk 170547

Foyers (Scottish Gaelic: Foithir, meaning "shelving slope") is a village in the Highland council area of Scotland, lying on the east shore of Loch Ness. The village is situated on the B852, part of the Military Road built by General George Wade, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Fort Augustus. The village is divided into Upper Foyers and Lower Foyers. Upper Foyers was originally a traditional crofting township and Lower Foyers came later after the British Aluminium Company built houses for those inployed in the aluminium works. The two are separated by the two waterfalls known as the Falls of Foyers. Foyers is also the name of the river which runs nearby into the Loch, which has two waterfalls, the upper one of 14 metres (46 ft) and the lower one of 30 metres (98 ft), known as the Falls of Foyers.Since the late 19th century, water courses near Foyers have been harnessed to provide hydroelectricity. British Aluminium Company built their first hydro-powered aluminium smelter at Foyers in 1896 - the first in the UK - and it operated until 1967, powered by water captured in Loch Mhòr. The power station element of the plant was then purchased by Scotland's Hydro Board and redeveloped using a 5MW turbine. Subsequently, a new pumped storage power station, with additional capacity of 300MW, was added, becoming fully operational in 1975.Foyers is the location of Boleskine House, two miles east of the main town, which was the home of author and occultist Aleister Crowley. The house was once owned by guitarist and Crowley collector Jimmy Page. Foyers was historically a strong Gaelic-speaking area, with 84.1% reporting as Gaelic-speaking in the 1881 census. However, only 4.9% of residents reported as Gaelic-speaking in the 2011 census.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Foyers, Highland (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Foyers, Highland
Park Terrace,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Foyers, HighlandContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 57.2539 ° E -4.4947 °
placeShow on map

Address

Park Terrace

Park Terrace
IV2 6YE
Scotland, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

River Foyers geograph.org.uk 170547
River Foyers geograph.org.uk 170547
Share experience

Nearby Places

Falls of Foyers
Falls of Foyers

The Falls of Foyers (Scottish Gaelic: Eas na Smùide, meaning the smoking falls) are two waterfalls on the River Foyers, which feeds Loch Ness, in Highland, Scotland. They are located on the lower portion of the River Foyers, and consist of the upper falls, with a drop of 46 feet (14 m) and the lower falls, which drop 98 feet (30 m).The falls were a popular destination for tourists using the pleasure steamers operating on Loch Ness, but in 1895, the North British Aluminium Company began building an aluminium smelting plant, which required large amounts of electricity. The hydro-electric station at the plant took large volumes of water from the River Foyers from an intake just above the falls, significantly reducing their flow. The plant was built without the need for Parliamentary approval, because the company bought the Lower Foyers estate, through which the river ran, and they were thus able to ignore the public outcry at the spoiling of an amenity. The works operated until 1967, with the original turbines which generated 3.75 MW remaining in use until the works closed. The 1895 scheme had dammed Loch Garth and raised its level by 20 feet (6.1 m). Because it then joined Loch Farraline, the reservoir was renamed Loch Mhòr. This became the upper reservoir for a pumped-storage hydro-electric scheme when the newly closed works was taken over by the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board. They installed a 5 MW turbine at the aluminium works, and constructed a tunnel from Loch Mhòr to feed a new power station located further to the north on the shore of Loch Ness. This has a capacity of 300 MW, and to preserve the amenity of the area, underground cables carry the power to a switching station some 3,000 feet (910 m) from the power station site. Further reductions to the flow over the falls have occurred as a result of diverting the River E into Loch Mhòr, and channelling most of the flow of the River Fechlin to it as well. Both formerly fed into the River Foyers, and hence the falls.

Loch Ness
Loch Ness

Loch Ness (; Scottish Gaelic: Loch Nis [l̪ˠɔx ˈniʃ]) is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately 37 kilometres (23 miles) southwest of Inverness. It takes its name from the River Ness, which flows from the northern end. Loch Ness is best known for claimed sightings of the cryptozoological Loch Ness Monster, also known affectionately as "Nessie" (Scottish Gaelic: Niseag). It is one of a series of interconnected, murky bodies of water in Scotland; its water visibility is exceptionally low due to the high peat content of the surrounding soil. The southern end connects to Loch Oich by the River Oich and a section of the Caledonian Canal. The northern end connects to Loch Dochfour via the River Ness, which then ultimately leads to the North Sea via the Moray Firth. At 56 km2 (22 sq mi), Loch Ness is the second-largest Scottish loch by surface area after Loch Lomond, but due to its great depth it is the largest by volume in Great Britain. Its deepest point is 230 metres (126 fathoms; 755 feet), making it the second deepest loch in Scotland after Loch Morar. It contains more water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined, and is the largest body of water in the Great Glen, which runs from Inverness in the north to Fort William in the south. Its surface is 16 metres (52 feet) above sea level. It contains a single, artificial island named Cherry Island (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Muireach) at the southwestern end. There are nine villages around the loch, as well as Urquhart Castle; the village of Drumnadrochit contains a "Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition".