Lochaber - The navvies' graveyard

The Blackwater Dam and the huge reservoir it holds back were created in the early 1900s. They sit in the hills a thousand feet above and a few miles east of Kinlochleven. The dam is notable as the last major construction project that was built using only hand tools and no mechanical earth moving machinery. The hard work was done by a workforce of two to three thousand people, most of whom were Irish navvies, a term given to these tough, manual labourers. The conditions for the navvies are described as grim. They lived in the most basic of shelters, working through rain-soaked, midge-infested summers and snow-covered, freezing winters. They had little to occupy their free time and take their minds off the conditions except fighting, gambling and drinking. Many lost their lives to terrible accidents during the construction work and are buried to this day in a small graveyard below the dam. Some of the navvies lost their lives not through accidents but from not returning in bad weather from a walk to the Kingshouse Inn, a few miles away over the hills. It was from the Kingshouse that we walked in to visit the navvies' graveyard. 

The bus let us out at the ski centre road end where we picked up the path of the West Highland Way. It quickly passes by the Kingshouse, a more gentrified hostelry than it would have been in the days of the navvies. The West Highland Way path then climbs over the Devil's Staircase, a series of steep zig-zags on the course of an old military road that take it out of Glen Coe and over the hills to the valley of the River Leven. I had never walked this way before and was excited to see new views. As we crested the top of the pass, the sun broke through and a beautiful panorama was stretched out in front of us as we gazed over Ben Nevis, the Mamores and the Grey Corries. They formed a formidable barrier of mountains in a jumble of shapely peaks. 

We dropped down the other side of the pass then peeled off the West Highland Way, descending over rough terrain towards the River Leven which flows out of the Blackwater Dam. Soon our feet hit a dirt track and in the birch woods close by, we found the conduit. This is the aqueduct, also built by the navvies, that carries the water from the reservoir for several miles down to the hydroelectric plant in Kinlochleven. Three million cubic metres per day flow here. It was eerie to walk along it, imagining that rush of water below my feet. We were later told a story that a local poacher, to avoid being found out by the gamekeeper, would put his deer carcass in at the top of the conduit and pick it up later at the bottom. This should probably be taken with a pinch of salt though!

We walked easily up the imperceptible gradient of the conduit and eventually the Blackwater Dam came into view, an imposing structure looming high above us. Below the dam, we found the navvies' graveyard. It was sombre to stand there thinking about the hard lives of these people and their horrific deaths. All that was left of them were simple concrete gravestones inscribed with their names or with "unknown", all facing towards the dam above. 

As we stood there, the last of the evening sun picked out the graveyard, sitting on its grassy knoll in the middle of these wild and beautiful hills. It was some place to spend eternity.

In fading light, we pitched our tents beside an old ruin above the level of the dam to ensure a good night's sleep free from nightmares about the dam bursting. An unfounded worry of course. The navvies did a good job and the dam has stood for 120 years. Next day, we walked out to Kinlochleven along the conduit, rain from above adding to the water below our feet. 

Fact File

Start: Glen Coe ski centre road end where the Citylink Glasgow to Fort William bus stops.
Finish: Kinlochleven where local buses take you to Ballachulish (for a return bus) or Fort William (for a return train).
My route: Where the bus stops at the ski road end is right on the West Highland Way so I followed that past the Kingshouse and over the Devil's Staircase. Where the West Highland Way descended on the far side and crossed the Allt a'Choire Odhair-mhoir, left the Way and descended to the dirt track above the gorge of the River Leven. The conduit is in the woods close to the track and can be followed to the dam and graveyard. Walked out to Kinochleven via the conduit, leaving it a little way before its end to rejoin the route of the West Highland Way which can be followed down into Kinlochleven.