Dam, not another one! - No5 Dam It Scenic Drive Traditional Cache
Dam, not another one! - No5 Dam It Scenic Drive
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Please replace as found!
Please bring your own pen to sign the log book.
Please take all necessary precautions when near the road and by the river.
Please keep dogs on a lead.
Parking for 2 cars on the dam viewing area.
Otherwise walk up via the footpath from the car park situated by the bridge below the dam.
Pen y Garreg dam is unusual in that it houses an access tunnel to the central tower which is lit by apertures in the downstream side of the dam.
This tunnel is open to the public on Dam Open Days ...see the Elan Valley website for dates.
Excavation work on the foundations for the dam at Pen-y-Garreg began in April 1895, when the construction railway reached the site. Work on the masonry of the dam itself started at the end of the following year and it was completed in 1903.
The dam is 37.2 m (123 feet) above the river bed. The reservoir is 50 hectares (124 acres) in area and has a total capacity of 1,320 million gallons - enough water to supply Birmingham for 15 days. The length of the dam is 161m (417 feet 6 inches). There is a hydro-electric turbine near the bottom of the dam which can generate 810 kilowatts of electricity.
The engineer in charge of the work on Pen-y-Garreg dam was Eustace Tickell, who is remembered for his many drawings of the valleys as they were before the building of the dams.
The recent photograph below shows the tower on the top of the dam, the apertures along the access tunnel and the masonry pegs jutting out from the face of the dam wall which were originally used to support the timbers carrying the rail track referred to above.
This cache is a short walk from the 'pull in'. Follow through the little gate back towards the bottom of the dam. the cache is situated where you can get a great view of the dam itself, just below the viewing area. A great view when the water is gushing over the top of the dam.
We would like to give grateful thanks to the Elan Valley Trust and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water for their kind permission to allow us to place this series of caches on their land.
Please see www.elanvalley.org.uk for further information about the Elan Valley and events held during the year.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ERWRPG ZNFBAEL ARNE OBGGBZ BS FGRCF