page_title: Walkerburn
section_title: 1920-1921, The Hydro Electric Scheme
hierarchical_section_title: Walkerburn / History / 1920-1921, The Hydro Electric Scheme
caption_attribution_description: English: Reservoir, Kirnie Law A wet day up at the tank. This was an early pumped storage reservoir which powered a mill in Walkerburn. It now seems to serve a useful purpose in isolating graffiti idiots away from inhabited areas.
context_page_description: Walkerburn is a small village in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, on the A72 about 8 miles from Peebles and 10 miles from Galashiels.
  It was founded in 1854 to house the workers for the Tweed mills owned by the Ballantyne family. Walkerburn now has a population of around 660.
  The village also unusually houses a small number of science-based industries and many successful small enterprises. It is the home of the Ballantyne Memorial Institute.
context_section_description: Initially the mill lade produced enough power for the mills but as production expanded more cheap energy was needed. In 1920 Messrs Boving & Co of London were asked to examine the possibility of setting up a better system of using water power from the Tweed to supply the mills.
  The first step was to make the lade more effective, and this was done by creating a greater and deeper fall, but this wasn't enough. Also, at night, the lade system produced power which was wasted. The revolutionary solution was to build a huge reservoir in the hills and to use the surplus power to pump water from the Tweed up to the reservoir. The next stage was to bring the water back down to drive a Pelton turbine to produce more power.
  A ferro-concrete reservoir was built on Kirnie Law connected to the power house by a 9" pipe. A funicular railway was built from the A72 up to the reservoir site to haul up all the materials used in construction – a total weight of 3,650 tons was carried on the railway.
  As production in the mills declined, less power was required. The system was dismantled and all that is left is the old reservoir.
caption: Reservoir at Kirnie Law
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