Just as I was getting to grips with the gravity of the proposed Glen Earrach Pump Hydro Storage scheme for Loch Ness, I happened across a book in ‘The Old School House’ shop in Beauly. Recently published, I knew I had to read it and had no hesitation in buying a copy.
Set in 1947 A Future in the Glens is historical ‘fiction’ centred around the character Donald Fraser, giving life to what happened to Highlanders when the Hydro building started in the glens after WW2. As the author David Charles says, these lives had not been acknowledged before and this was what moved him to write his books.
I read wide eyed, as the parallels and feelings towards the plans proposed here now, became evident. We are of course living in a time when government money is being radically, but quietly, redirected from welfare to warfare and power generation.
Below are a few snippets that I felt impelled to earmark as I went and would now like to share:
To Donald it beggared belief that a country bankrupted by war, a scheme such as the Hydro could be even contemplated let alone commenced but it had happened. The Hydro was coming and there was no way it could be stopped, although it was clear from Franks comments that not everyone welcomed the Hydro with unalloyed joy. Donald thought back to the chat he had with Duncan Lauder just a few days ago on the home bound train. He had dismissed Duncan’s comments then as elaboration and overstatement fuelled by his enthusiasm for business and profit. Now he saw that Duncan was right. If anything he had understated the changes coming; Cannich and the glens would never be the same……
While it would be a few years before the dam was complete and loch impounded, some of the cottages were already empty…..some had moved no further than Strathglass but some had gone further afield away from the glens for good they had said, and Donald thought it ironic that momentous works intended to regenerate the glens were in fact emptying them.
Not so with Lachie, however, he was staying to the last minute….“We are supposed to have a socialist government now -hah! – It’s a joke. What are they going to do for the likes of us? It’s nothing more than the clearances all over again!”
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Buster, an engineer, talks to Donald about the development:
“It’s going to be huge. The biggest so far. The water level will be raised by a hundred feet [the depth of Loch nam Breac Dearga behind Meal Fuar-Mhonaidh will be increased by 118 feet for context].” Buster’s tone was excited, his manner exuberant, as he pointed all of this out……no disturbance yet, no obvious signs of the destruction that would soon be brought to this peaceful and isolated glen.”
“Donald, I hope you don’t mind me asking this but what Mr Cameron said last night, I’ve never had to speak to someone in that position before. It has shaken me a bit I don’t mind telling you. To me the clearances are something in the past. I know of them but I don’t really know about them if you get me. They are something I was taught about at school, from a book, but last night it felt like something that happened just last week. Does everyone in the Highlands feel like that about it?
“you should have a word with Duncan Lauder. His family were involved in the clearances further up north…..I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. It’s coming; it can’t be stopped and we’ll just have to live with it…”
“What’s your own view of it?”
“Well, that’s a difficult one….For the country at large there’s obviously huge benefits….I think it’s more than just a balancing the books exercise. It might only be a few highlanders being moved out but they are not just losing houses, bricks and mortar. They are loosing a way of life, their history is being closed off. I feel enormous sympathy for them….”
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Another thing revealed in the book is that the Americans were involved in the building of these dams. Military engineers from the Tennessee Valley were here, along side German prisoners of war.
“….We are loosing the empire, we owe the Yanks the family silver, we are flat broke and yet this money is being spent on a scale I can barely imagine”
A belligerent highlander Frank was causing the dam builders hassle…
“Gentlemen if I might interrupt. We had much the same in Tennessee and it was mainly the men, older hill men, that caused the problem. Same goes here I guess. If it’s any help I can tell you the way we solved it was through the women. Once the womenfolk saw what cheap electrical power would do to change their workday lives we were halfway home. The promised we were making to their menfolk were a nothing compared to the persistent persuasion of a determined wife looking forward to a warm dry house and constant hot water. Trust me I know what I am talking about!”
“Hydro Electric and bootleg whiskey. Tennessee and Scotland.
Anyway let’s have a nightcap…..”
David Charles gave a talk about why and how he wrote his books for the Strathglass Heritage Group on the 2nd June 2025. The overall sense in that filled room seemed very much that, by remembering our past we can make more thoughtful decisions for our future, and as a result of our conversations he has kindly given us 45 books to share freely (just because of a small typo on page 239). The name Matthew Harding should be Matthew Hargreaves – otherwise it is, in David’s words, ‘perfectly readable’ – indeed it is! .
If you would like a copy please email Save Loch Ness and we will get a copy to you! Otherwise, you will be able to get a copy in Beauly or on line