Pitlochry Fish Ladder

Pitlochry was not a town we had planned to visit, but after visiting Blair Atholl we stayed on the B road a little longer on the return journey. Several miles down the road was Pitlochry. This was a busy place, buildings really had a unique character, the high street was long, and busy, the town is obviously a popular weekend spot to visit (like Wellingtonians popping over to Martinborough).

We were passing through, but I saw a sign that said "Fish Ladder" and was interested so we made a detour.

Pitlochry is beside the River Tummel and has a hydro-electric dam. As the river is travelled by salmon, the dam has a fish ladder which allows the fish to migrate upstream, passing the dam by jumping up a 34 pools, each a little higher than the last.

The ladder is so long it doubles back and forth, this is a necessity based on how far fish can jump, and how high the dam is.

Here's the view of the lake at the top...


This is the view down river. Note the fisher ladder on the right, heading first of all away from the dam and then back towards it.



A close up view of the ladder, from the top, looking down the steps. See there is a bend some distance away, then the steps continue down towards the dam.



Sadly, it's not the right time of year to see fish migrating. So we just watched the empty pools for a while :-)