Site Report

WoSASPIN 39963 NS47NW 30.04 4255 7649 and c. 4236 7610

There was formerly a hydro-electric scheme based around the 'Lily Pond' which was formed by impounding the Overtoun Burn to the N of Overtoun Castle (NS47NW 30.00) and E of the Garshake Reservoir (NS47NW 38). The hydro-electric turbine was located in the small building situated in the deep glen formed by the Overtoun Burn and Gruggies Burn downstream from the house. This building has long since been vandalised and the turbine thrown further down into the glen. It was formerly white-tiled internally and 'packed with glass tubing' which may have formed part of a battery storage sustem or been connected with the use of the house as a maternity hospital.
Information from Mr H Valentine, 32 Inglewood Crescent, Hairmyres, East Kilbride, 14 January 2000.

The 'Lily Pond' that is mentioned by Mr Valentine may be identified with the open feature that is depicted on the 1995 edition of the OS 1:10,000 map around NS 4255 7649. The turbine building cannot be located from the available map evidence but was possibly at NS c. 4236 7610.
The Overtoun Burn here forms the boundary between the parishes of Dumbarton and Old Kilpatrick.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 31 January 2000.
NMRS Report date for above text 31/01/00

The ruinous remains of what may be the turbine house noted above are located at NS 4222 7605. The most obvious feature of the structure is a brick wall, to which a few remaining patches of white tile still adhere. This accords with the description of the turbine house provided by Valentine. These tiles are appropriate to an interior, implying that the structure was roofed. The wall has a taller one behind it; the structure apparently had a sloping roof, and a sloping end-wall can still be seen at its far end. An opening at the far end of the building provides access to a narrow passage at the back, between the two walls. This passage leads to a small chamber, which is located at the near end of the ruin; however, the chamber did not appear to contain anything of interest. The structure matches the description of a ruined turbine house that has been reported from this area, and which had a white-tiled interior; the location of that building had been uncertain.
Cameron, D.A., 28/06/10

The structure represents the remains of a particularly early example of hydro-electric power for domestic consumption: there is contemporary notice of the scheme in, for example, the journal "The Electrical Engineer" in its volume of 1892, where it is noted that John Campbell White planned to introduce electric light into his mansion of Overtoun, and that a waterfall at Spardie Linn "is to furnish the motive power". The journal adds that it was thought that sufficient power could be generated at the same place to light the whole of Dumbarton by electricity. That seems rather doubtful, since the flow of the burn is not great, except in winter; however, in lighting Overtoun House itself, the scheme appears to have been a success, and it was expected to pay for itself within the space of a few years.

For fuller details of the scheme, a very useful source is the Lennox Herald newspaper, in its issue of 17 September 1892; there, part of page 5 describes the scheme in some detail: the Overtoun Burn was, at night, employed to generate electrical power for Overtoun House. In that connection, water was dammed, about a third of a mile upstream of the turbine house, in what had been an ornamental pond, to form a reservoir: NS4276 : Former dam and lily pond. From there, a cast-iron pipe led to the turbine house, which was 180 feet lower than the reservoir.

The turbine house itself was divided into two compartments, one containing the turbines, the dynamos, and their associated equipment, and the other an accumulator. There were two turbines, each of 12 horsepower, mounted on separate base plates. Each turbine was coupled directly to the shaft that it drove. Each dynamo could supply 120 lamps of 16 candlepower each, or twice as many 8 candlepower lamps. There was a mechanism for stopping the turbines automatically, thus dispensing with the need to have someone in constant attendance: an eight-day clock was fitted with a device, similar to the workings of an alarm clock, to release a weight at a pre-determined time; this would operate a valve to shut off the water supply, stopping the turbines.

After the turbines had been stopped (at 11 o'clock), the accumulator would supply any electrical current that was needed until the turbines were started again on the following evening. The accumulator could (according to the figures appearing in the newspaper article) supply 50 lamps of 16 candlepower for ten hours, or the same number of 8-candlepower lamps for twenty-four hours.

The current was conveyed to Overtoun House by means of an underground cable: this was a substantial piece of work in itself, and consisted of a copper core surrounded by insulating material; this, in turn, was placed in a lead tube that was protected by a sheathing of galvanised iron wires coated with jute braiding and treated with a submarine cable compound. The article also explains that the hydro-electric scheme had been made possible by some recent amendments to the Electric Lighting Act. It concludes by noting that the wiring of Overtoun House was carried out by Messrs Maver and Coulson of Glasgow, who had recently created an "electric lighting station" at Kirktonhill (c.NS388752), powering houses in that neighbourhood.

In terms of the physical remains present at the site, the wall has a taller one behind it; the structure clearly had a sloping roof (a sloping end-wall can still be seen at its far end). An opening at the far (the northern) end of the building provides access to a narrow uncovered passage at the back, between the two walls. The passage leads to a small chamber, from which a cramped, lightless tunnel leads through the southern half of the ruin, towards a small opening at the southern end.

Directly in front of the pipe mentioned earlier is a rectangular pit, 1.2m by 0.8m; that pit is one end of a water channel that leads westwards beneath the footpath beside which the structure stands, and towards the valley of the burn.

The ruin is set against a rising slope, which reaches to the top of the rear (east) wall of the structure; as noted above, the inflow to the turbine house was by means of a buried pipe.
Information from Cameron, D.A., via www.geograph.org.uk website