Aerial survey

In July 1948, an aerial survey of the Lee valley from Inniscarra to The Gearagh was completed. The purpose of this survey was to enhance the designer’s knowledge of the topography and to study available storage volumes. The survey has given us some excellent black-and-white photographs of the valley. A very high-powered camera must have been used as the pictures are of excellent quality. They are so good that you can see men working in the fields and the remains of the hay stacks. In all, there are forty-three photographs in the series. All the antiquities destroyed in the flooding can be seen in the pictures. A feature of the pictures is the number of cows that are standing in the river. These pictures were taken in high summer — the gadding season. The warble fly was rampant at that time and when the cows heard the buzzing of this fly they took off. Nothing, just nothing, would stop them as they raced for shelter from the dreaded fly. As the warble fly did not travel over water, this was one place where the cows were safe. Today, the warble fly has been eradicated.

The order signed by the Minister is a list of all the work to be done to carry out the scheme. It also detailed what and where the works were. The project visualized the use of the fall between Dromcarra Bridge and Inniscarra in two steps. The lower step was to be formed by the construction of a dam in the gorge at Inniscarra. This created a reservoir extending about ten miles (16 km) up the valley. The upper step was to be by construction of a dam in the rock gorge immediately upstream of Killinardrish/ Carrigadrohid Bridge and so create a second reservoir extending eight-and-a-half miles upstream towards Dromcarra.

In the fourth and final stage of the preparation work contracts were placed, working drawings were prepared and the necessary land was acquired. On 11 December 1952, the ESB announced that the contracts for the main civil works in connection with the River Lee hydroelectric development had been placed. The French engineering firm of the Société de Construction des Batignolles (SCB), 11 Rue d’Argenson, Paris, was given the contract to construct the dams and power stations at Carrigadrohid and Inniscarra. They had wide experience of large hydroelectric development works in France and the French colonies.

To be continued…

Adapted from Kieran McCarthy & Seamus O’Donoghue, forthcoming, Generations, Memories of the Lee Hydroelectric Scheme, County Cork, Lilliput Press, Dublin, an ESB funded publication.

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