The Mourne Conduit was a
water main
A water distribution system is a part of water supply network with components that carry potable water from a centralized treatment plant or wells to consumers to satisfy residential, commercial, industrial and fire fighting requirements.
Defini ...
which ran from the
Silent Valley Reservoir
The Silent Valley Reservoir is a reservoir located in the Mourne Mountains near Kilkeel, County Down in Northern Ireland. It supplies most of the water for County Down, surrounding counties and most of Belfast. It is owned and maintained by Northe ...
to Carryduff, near Belfast and was built between 1893 and 1901 for the
Belfast City and District Water Commissioners.
This was supplemented by additional pipelines twice in the 20th Century.
This system supplied water to Greater Belfast and North Down for more than 100 years. It is labelled as the Mourne Aqueduct in Ordnance Survey maps from the early 20th century.
This system was replaced by the Aquarius Line, a dual pipeline between the Mourne Mountains and the Purdysburn Service Reservoir in Belfast which was constructed along with associated infrastructure as part of the Aquarius Mourne Water Project. The system provides water to approximately 20% of Northern Ireland's population.
Mourne Conduit
In 1891, the Belfast Water Commissioners (BWC and later the
Belfast City and District Water Commissioners or BC&DWC) hired
Luke Livingston Macassey
Luke Livingstone Macassey (1843 – 9 May 1908) was an Irish civil engineer and barrister, notable for his contributions to public health by improving the water supply in the north of Ireland (today Northern Ireland). In 1874 he was appointed co ...
to investigate options for a source of an additional water supply for the expanding city of
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
.
Macassey selected the
Mourne Mountains
The Mourne Mountains ( ; ga, Beanna Boirche), also called the Mournes or Mountains of Mourne, are a granite mountain range in County Down in the south-east of Northern Ireland. They include the highest mountains in Northern Ireland, the high ...
for the reasons summarised in a 1935 report:
The portion of the Mourne Mountains acquired by the Commissioners totals approximately 9,000 acres. It is all mountainland ic uninhabited, and a large part of it is rocky and precipitous. It extends from about 330 feet above sea-level to a maximum of 2,796 feet above sea-level, Slieve Donard
Slieve Donard ( ; ) is the highest mountain in Northern Ireland and the wider province of Ulster, with a height of . The highest of the Mourne Mountains, it is near the town of Newcastle on the eastern coast of County Down, overlooking the Iris ...
being the highest mountain within the area. It is practically devoid of trees, being covered with heather, gorse, and bracken where not granite rock and boulders. The average rainfall on the area is 57.6 inches per annum. It is drained by two streams : on the west, the Kilkeel river flowing due south, and the Annalong river, lying parallel to and to the east of the Kilkeel river, draining the Annalong Valley. The catchment of the Kilkeel river is 5,500 acres in extent, that of the Annalong river being 3,500 acres. The water of both these rivers is similar and of excellent quality, having 2 degrees of hardness
In materials science, hardness (antonym: softness) is a measure of the resistance to localized plastic deformation induced by either mechanical indentation or abrasion. In general, different materials differ in their hardness; for example hard ...
.
Macassey proposed a three stage project, with the Mourne Conduit part of the first phase. Construction occurred between 1893 and 1901 and involved the diversion of the Kilkeel and Annalong rivers into the new pipeline, the construction of a reservoir at
Carryduff
Carryduff ()[Northern Ireland Placenames Project](_blank)
is a small ...
, and associated infrastructure.
The Mourne Conduit consists of 7 miles of tunnel, 16 miles of concrete culvert and 12 miles of pressure pipeline.
The second phase saw the completion of the
Silent Valley Reservoir
The Silent Valley Reservoir is a reservoir located in the Mourne Mountains near Kilkeel, County Down in Northern Ireland. It supplies most of the water for County Down, surrounding counties and most of Belfast. It is owned and maintained by Northe ...
in 1933.
Plans for the third phase reservoir in the Annalong valley were abandoned, with the Annalong river instead diverted into the Silent Valley Reservoir via the
Binnian Tunnel
The Binnian Tunnel (2.5 miles long) was constructed between 1947 and 1950/51 and is located under the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland. The main purpose of the tunnel is to divert water from the Annalong Valley to the Silent ...
which was completed in 1952.
Due to increased demand, the Mourne Conduit was supplemented by additional pipeline sections between 1934 and 1937, mainly in the
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
and
Ballynahinch Ballynahinch may refer to:
Northern Ireland
* Ballynahinch, County Armagh, a townland
*Ballynahinch, County Down, a town
Republic of Ireland
*Ballynahinch (barony), in County Galway
*Ballynahinch, County Galway, a townland in County Galway
* Bally ...
valleys.
In 1947, a three year construction project commenced which saw the installation of a second conduit between Silent Valley and the Dunnywater Straining Well above Annalong. Between 1949 and 1956
Farrans was contracted to lay the "triplicate conduit" to increase the capacity of the system.
That company would later work on the replacement Aquarius Line.
By the 1970s the BC&DWC's responsibilities had been assumed by the
Department of the Environment
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
. This body carried out a survey of the conduit which established the requirement to replace the section of conduit between the Annalong valley and the Donard Tunnel with pre-stressed concrete pipes. These works also include the lining of the tunnel through Slieve Donard with precast concrete liners.
Lime dosing plants were built in 1985 along the route of the conduit at Silent Valley, Dunmore, and Carryduff.
Lodges
6 identical lodges were built along the route of the conduit for "water attendants" or "linesman" between 1899 and 1901. These attendants monitored the conduit, flushed valves, and carried out general maintenance work. They had access through boundaries via red gates marked with "BWC" along the route. The 6 lodges are at Tullybranigan near Newcastle, Ballybannon and Drumanaquoile near
Castlewellan
Castlewellan () is a small town in County Down, in the south-east of Northern Ireland close to the Irish Sea. It is beside Castlewellan Lake and Slievenaslat mountain, southwest of Downpatrick. It lies between the Mourne Mountains and Slieve C ...
, and Dunmore, Ballykine and Brae Road (Creevytenant), near Ballynahinch.
File:BWC building near Newcastle (geograph 4520819 by Rossographer).jpg, 1 of 6 lodges built as part of the Mourne Conduit scheme.
File:Well House at Creevytenant, Ballynahinch.jpg, A well house above the Mourne Conduit near Ballynahinch and red access gate, now both listed
Listed may refer to:
* Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm
* Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic
* Endangered species in biology
* Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...
.
File:Air well structure.jpg, Air well above the Mourne Conduit near Carryduff
Aquarius Line
The requirement to replace the Mourne Conduit was identified in the early 1990s by the
Water Executive. This ultimately resulted in the Aquarius Mourne Water Project, a three phase £62 million project to replace the Mourne Conduit and pipelines with new 900mm and 1200mm pipelines laid concurrently, along with associated infrastructure.
*Aquarius 1 - The first phase involved the construction of a water pumping station at
Drumaroad which pumps water up 60m to a break pressure tank on the nearby Dunmore Mountain, the latter was also constructed as part of the project. This phase also saw the replacement of of the Mourne Conduit between the pumping station and Ballynahinch and it was completed between May 1999 and May 2000.
[
*Aquarius 2 - of new pipeline from Ballynahinch to Belfast and from the Mourne Mountains to Drumaroad along with another pumping station.] Ten service reservoirs along the route were also included in works as part of "The Valley Distribution Scheme".
*Aquarius 3 - Construction of a £20 million water treatment works
Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, includ ...
at Drumaroad which was designed to treat up to 155 million litres of water a day.[ This was officially opened by then ]Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...
, Peter Hain
Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain (born 16 February 1950), is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State ...
, in November 2005.
The system provides water to approximately 20% of Northern Ireland's population.
In 2020, NI Water awarded a £13 million contract to Graham Construction
Graham and Graeme may refer to:
People
* Graham (given name), an English-language given name
* Graham (surname), an English-language surname
* Graeme (surname), an English-language surname
* Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer
* Clan ...
for an expansion of water treatment facilities at the works.[{{Cite web, title=£13 Million Upgrade at Drumaroad Water Treatment Plant to benefit a quarter of NI’s population. - Northern Ireland Water, url=https://www.niwater.com/news-detail/11764/13-million-upgrade-at-drumaroad-water-treatment-plant-to-benefit-a-quarter-of-nis-population/, access-date=2021-03-14, website=www.niwater.com]
File:Aquarius water pipeline.jpg, Installation of the pipelines
File:Aquarius Line marker.jpg, Marker posts for the Aquarius line water main near Ballynahinch.
File:Aquarius dual water pipeline at Ballynahinch.jpg, Aquarius dual water pipeline crossing the Ballynahinch River
Ballynahinch River is a river in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is one of the two component watercourses which form the Annacloy River, also known as the Quoile River.
Course
The Ballynahinch River, flowing east through Ballynahinch, and the ...
References
Freshwater pipelines