Orrin Dam With Integrated Fish Pass, Conon Valley Hydro Electric Scheme is a Grade B listed building in the Highland local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 11 February 2011. Dam.
Orrin Dam With Integrated Fish Pass, Conon Valley Hydro Electric Scheme
- WRENN ID
- endless-roof-hyssop
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- Highland
- Constituency
- Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP: Jamie Stone (LD)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 11 February 2011
- Type
- Dam
- OS grid reference
- NH 402 503
- Coordinates
- 57.51518, -4.66834
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
Orrin Dam, built in 1961, is part of the Conon Valley Hydro Electric Scheme and was likely designed by James Williamson and Partners, engineers for the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board technical panel. This long mass gravity dam features a large central buttress that incorporates a fish pass. An access roadway extends over the fixed spillway, which is supported by tapered concrete piers. The dam is primarily constructed of mass concrete, with some reinforced concrete used in the central buttress and control towers. The downstream face is battered, and a large angled buttress is positioned at the center, flanked by tall square-plan control towers that rise from the downstream face. At the base of the buttress, there are dispersal valves and the entrance to the fish pass, along with a small single-storey turbine hall that houses the compensation set. Additionally, there is a small control tower located at the center of the buttress at roadway level.
Local climate
Orrin Dam With Integrated Fish Pass, Conon Valley Hydro Electric Scheme sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,320 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 81% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 69 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 53 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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- 5 Including Spillway Towers And Weir, Vaich Dam, Conon Valley Hydro Electric Scheme
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