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Published: 7 May 2020

Wild Moment: Selby Martin

"It was a memorable experience; offering limitless opportunities to fish..." A war evacuee remembers Rannoch during the war and just after

Don O'Driscoll - trout

I used to live in Broadstairs, Kent, where I was born. When war broke out, a local preparatory school, Wellesley House, was evacuated to an estate in Rannoch. There were three lodges on the shore of Loch Rannoch which were allocated to the school; a fourth lodge, Dunan, two miles upstream on the river Gaur, was let to my father. The school did not wish to use it as staff accommodation; there was no electricity or gas, no telephone and water came from a tank on the hill above; the supply was liable to freeze in winter.

I was entered for Wellesley House and progressed through the three lodges. Rannoch Lodge was the second one, situated at the head of the loch, with magnificent views to Schiehallion at the far end. We fished in the Gaur and the loch. Where the river flows into the loch, there were many pike, no doubt feeding on salmon smolts as they migrated from the spawning beds upstream.

For my parents, living at Dunan was difficult. For my two brothers and myself it was a memorable experience; it offered limitless opportunities to fish. We all three became ardent fishermen in several lochans as well as the river. A sort distance from Dunan were the falls of Rannoch and above them Loch Eigheach which held numerous trout. These were mostly small, except that the loch was in two parts, with very large trout in the deep connecting channel. These were ferox trout and had probably come down from Loch Laidon.

Several years after the war, we returned to Rannoch having rented Dunan for a month. More recently, my wife and I again returned for a holiday. On both occasions I was struck by the fact that so little had changed since the war years. The landscapes were the same and apart from an extension to a hotel in Kinloch Rannoch, there was very little development. The road up the valley to Rannoch station ends there and there is no through traffic.

The one exception was the construction of a hydro-electric power station below the falls. This had a disastrous effect on both landscape and the environment. A dam had been built across the outflow from Loch Eigheach to take water to the power station below and streams had been diverted to feed it. The falls were no long a feature and the fishing in the loch above had changed;  with the increase in water level there were no longer separate parts and the deep channel between the two had gone.

It transpired that the power station was not at the time generating a steady amount of electricity. It was being used to top up national demand when required. At times, there was very little flow in the river, at others a sudden spate would flood down without warning. We were given to understand that a child playing in the river near Bridge of Gaur had been swept away and drowned. The impact of the power station and the way it was operated was far more damaging than a wind farm; at least turbines can eventually be removed, the power station is there for ever.

The only other threat to Rannoch could come if it was decided to build a road from Rannoch station along the side of Loch Laidon to link up with the A82 and Glen Coe. This and the through traffic it generated would destroy the quality of life for the whole Rannoch area.

Photo of trout by Don O'Driscoll

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