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Llyn Clywedog Reservoir

On the 31st July 1963 the Clywedog Bill was given the Royal consent for the construction of the dam. During the years of 1965 to 1967 the construction of the Llyn Clywedog dam took place on the River Clywedog a tributary of the River Severn which is the longest British river. The idea behind the dam was to regulate the flow of the River Severn during winter months to prevent flooding and during the summer to maintain a flow. The River Severn actually starts Plynlimon a few miles away and makes its journey of some 220 miles to the Bristol Channel. The dam suffered from a lot of protests including a bomb going off on the construction site on the 6th March 1966 which set work back by some 6 weeks. The cost of the damage was £36,000.

The dam is 72 meters high (the highest concrete dam in the UK), 230 meters wide and holds back some 50,006 million litres of water enough for 550 million average baths. The dam contains enough concrete to construct 28 miles of a 6 lane motorway, about 200,000 cubic meters of concrete in all. The dam is self sufficient by using a 500kW hydro-electric turbine.

The lake is owned and maintained by Severn Trent Water who have established a number of walks around the location of the dam. The lake itself covers an area of some 615 acres.

Further interesting links:

http://www.llgc.org.uk/ymgyrchu/Dwr/CLywedog/DWCL02.htm

http://www.llgc.org.uk/ymgyrchu/Dwr/CLywedog/DWCL03a.htm

http://www.llgc.org.uk/ymgyrchu/Dwr/CLywedog/DWCL04a.htm

Photographs taken using Nikon D2Xs producing a 20MB RAW file (4,288 x 2,848), samples shown are 640 x 425 pixels

© Copyright Mark Savage (slideintime.com) 2003-2007.
All photographs copyright Mark Savage (slideintime.com) 2003-2007 unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved.