Karen Lee's Pictures of Elan Valley Visitors Centre

River Claerwen, Elan Valley

The height of the dam above the River Claerwen in the valley below is 120ft.

This picture appears in the following picture tour:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

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Craig Goch Reservoir, Elan Valley

The reservoir has a capacity of 2,000,000,000 gallons and covers 217 acres

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys, Lakes And Reservoirs

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Craig Goch Dam, Elan Valley

The dam at Craig Goch, the highest upstream of the dams in the Elan Valley at a height of 1040 feet (317m) above sea level

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Claerwen River, Elan Valley

The Claerwen river, downstream from the Dam

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys, River Scenes

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Claerwen Dam, Elan Valley

Claerwen Dam is the largest of the dams. Building started at the end of the second world war, took six years to complete and a workforce of 470. It is 184 ft (56 m) high and 1167 ft (355 m) long. The dam was designed to look like the much older structures nearby, built in concrete; the huge dam was faced with dressed stone.

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys, Buildings and Structures

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Claerwen Dam, Elan Valley

Claerwen Dam is the largest of the dams. Building started at the end of the second world war, took six years to complete and a workforce of 470. It is 184 ft (56 m) high and 1167 ft (355 m) long. The dam was designed to look like the much older structures nearby, built in concrete; the huge dam was faced with dressed stone.

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys, Buildings and Structures

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Shelley Sculpture, Elan Visitors Centre

On the bank of the River Elan, downstream from Caban Coch dam is a sculpture of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, he stayed in the Elan Valley for several weeks in 1811 and 1812 as a guest of his Uncle at Cwm Elan house. The sculpture is inspired by the drama, ‘Prometheus Unbound’ by Shelley.

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Pen-Y-Gareg,Elan Valley

The banks of the Pen-Y-Gareg reservoir are a designated site of Outstanding Natural Beauty

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys, Trees and Woodlands

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Pen-y-Gareg Dam,Elan Valley

Pen-Y-Gareg is the middle dam. The masonry pegs jutting out from the face of the dam wall were originally used to support the timbers carrying the railtrack, built to get the large stones to the top of the dam. This dam is unusual in that it has an access tunnel to the central tower which is lit by apertures in the side of the dam running along the top

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys, Buildings and Structures, Lakes And Reservoirs

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Nantgwyllt church in the Elan Valley

On the bank of Gareg-Ddu reservoir the Victorian church built at the end of the 19th century by Birmingham Corporation to replace the small 16th century chapel that was flooded in the reservoir.

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys, Churches

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Careg-Ddu Dam and Foel Tower,Elan Valley

Careg-Ddu is in the lower Elan valley. It serves a dual purpose, it is a low, completely submerged dam and it also carries the road to the neighbouring valley when the original road was flooded. Cwm Elan House and its Ten thousand acres where the Poet Shelley was a house guest now lies at the bottom of the reservoir The Foel Tower is the starting point of the 73 mile journey of the water from the Elan Valley to Birmingham. It was built in a Baroque style . The Tower houses a system of valves and cylinders which can be raised and lowered hydraulically to draw water off from the reservoir, this water is then directed to pipes and is carried by gravity, pumping is not required because the network drops 52 metres (171 ft) along its 73 miles (117) km, a gradient of 1:2300 maintains a flow of less than 2 miles per hour (3.2 km/h); water takes one-and-a-half days to reach Birmingham.

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys, Buildings and Structures, Lakes And Reservoirs

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Caban Coch Dam, Elan Valley

Work started on the dam in 1893 and was first flooded in 1896, the dam has a drop of 120 feet into the Elan River and Valley below.

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Buildings and Structures, Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Rhayader, Powys

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D

Caban Coch Reservoir in the Elan Valley

The Elan Valley Reservoirs are lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers in Mid Wales . The reservoirs, which were built by the Birmingham Corporation water Department to provide clean drinking water for Birmingham in the West Midlands. The area of the 5 reservoirs measures 9 miles (14.5 km) from west to east and around 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from north to south. It was thirteen years from 1893 to 1906 to complete four of the dams and Over 50,000 men were employed on the construction sites.

This picture appears in the following picture tours:
Elan Valley Visitors Centre, Powys, Lakes And Reservoirs, Rhayader

Camera Make: Canon Model: Canon EOS 600D