Talla Reservoir, located a mile from Tweedsmuir,

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

, Scotland, is an earth-work dam fed by Talla Water. The reservoir is supplemented by water from the nearby Fruid Reservoir. It was opened in 1905. To assist in bringing the materials for its construction, the

Talla Railway The Talla Railway was a privately constructed railway line in southern Scotland. It was built 1895-97 to aid the construction of the Talla Reservoir, to serve the water demand of Edinburgh. The railway was about long, running south from a conne ...

was built.

History

In the late 19th century engineers surveying for the Edinburgh and District Water Trust (EDWT) identified the area around the loch at Talla in the hills above Tweedsmuir in the

as an ideal site for a new reservoir to supply the increasing water demands of the expanding city of Edinburgh, 28 miles to the north. In the mid-1890s the land was secured from the Trustees of the Earl of Wemyss and March Estates for £20,000. Construction was by James Young & Sons. On 29 September 1897 a stone-laying ceremony marked the start of construction of Victoria Lodge, at the southern terminus. The Lodge was built as the headquarters for the Trustees of the

Edinburgh Water Company Edinburgh Water Company and its successors have provided a public water supply and latterly sewerage and sewage treatment services to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh since 1819. The original company was established to supply drinking water and ...

. A

category B listed This is a list of Category A listed buildings in Scotland, which are among the listed buildings of the United Kingdom. For a fuller list, see the pages linked on List of listed buildings in Scotland. Key The organization of the lists in th ...

house in the Scots Renaissance style, it sits in its own private grounds overlooking the reservoir. All materials for construction were lifted from there to the construction site by a ropeway, called a ' Blondin' after the famous tightrope walker Charles Blondin. These included stone and aggregates from quarries in

North Queensferry North Queensferry is a village in Fife, Scotland, situated on the Firth of Forth where the Forth Bridge, the Forth Road Bridge, and the Queensferry Crossing all meet the Fife coast, some from the centre of Edinburgh. It is the southernmost sett ...

and Craigleith, pipes, valve gear and pumping equipment from central Scotland, as well as the clay,

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

and sand used in the dam embankment.

Puddle clay Puddling is both the material and the process of lining a water body such as a channel or pond with puddle clay (puddle, puddling) – a watertight (low hydraulic conductivity) material based on clay and water mixed to be workable. Puddle clay as ...

, for the watertight barrier within the dam came from the

Carluke Carluke (; gd, Cathair MoLuaig) is a town that lies in the heart of the Lanarkshire countryside in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, northwest of Lanark and southeast of Wishaw. Carluke is largely a commuting town, with a variety of small stores ...

area; this material was initially developed by James Brindley for canal lining. In total, over 100,000 tons of material were transported for the building of the reservoir, and at least 30 of the workmen (who were mostly Irish) died during construction and are buried at Tweedsmuir churchyard. TallaReservoir2

Construction work was virtually complete by late 1904 and Talla Water was diverted into the bed of the reservoir on 20 May 1905. The official opening ceremony on 28 September was carried out by Lady Cranston, wife of the Lord Provost. The total cost was £1.25 million (the equivalent of £156 million in 2020).Edinburgh and Its Environs: Wardlock Guide

Sources

John Furneval's article on Railscot

History

Sources

See also