The visitor centre for the power station inside Ben Cruachan, on the shore of Loch Awe, with a free exhibition, a gift shop and the Hollow Mountain Cafe.
A kilometre inside Ben Cruachan, deep in the solid rock, there's a power station, and the visitor centre on the shore of Loch Awe is where you find out how it got there.
It's a bright, welcoming stop on the A85, 19 miles east of Oban, with a free exhibition, a gift shop and the Hollow Mountain Cafe, which does homemade soups, toasties, bacon rolls, scones and caramel slices, with salads and vegetables from its own garden in season. The station was opened by the Queen in 1965, after six years' work by 1,300 men known as the Tunnel Tigers. Tours into the mountain are paused until 2028 while the station is upgraded, so the exhibition tells the story for now. Outside there's a picnic and play area by the loch for children, and keep an eye out for red squirrels and pine martens. Parking is free, and Falls of Cruachan station is close by.
Open Monday from 11am to 2.45pm and Tuesday to Friday from 10.30am to 2.45pm; closed at weekends and on public holidays, and from 18 December 2026 until 1 February 2027.
Entry to the exhibition is free, and so is the car park. Tours into the mountain are paused until 2028. Pets are not allowed anywhere in the centre.
Opening hours
Their website
That was the workforce over the six years it took to build Cruachan, drilling and blasting a kilometre-long tunnel out of solid granite. The Queen opened the station on 15 October 1965, and its last two turbines came into service in 1966 and 1967.
The cavernous machine hall lies a kilometre inside the solid rock of Ben Cruachan. Tours into it are paused until 2028 while an £80 million upgrade raises the station's output and replaces original parts in two of its units.
When it opened, Cruachan was the first reversible pumped storage hydro system on this scale to be built anywhere in the world. It is now one of just four pumped storage hydro power stations in the UK.
Above the visitor centre, the buttress dam on Ben Cruachan is 316 metres long and 46 metres high at its tallest, and the reservoir behind it holds more than 10 million cubic metres of water. Nineteen kilometres of tunnels and aqueducts bring in the rain and streams from the hill around it.
Deep in the granite that forms Ben Cruachan on the shores of Loch Awe lies a cavern huge enough to house the Tower of London. It is here that four enormous turbines convert water power into electricity at the Drax-owned pumped-hydro power station. See it for yourself on an underground bus tour. Above ground, interactive exhibits explain how the power station generates electricity on demand for Scotland. Afterwards, climb to see the Cruachan dam and reservoir, only accessible on foot – an amazing tilted-viaduct-like structure holding back milky blue waters.
Read moreNew places, news and stories, as we find them.
What is on in Argyll and ButeOn the A85 on the north shore of Loch Awe, 19 miles east of Oban, PA33 1AN.
Pass of BranderThe gorge below Ben Cruachan where the River Awe runs to Loch Etive, and where Bruce broke the MacDougalls in 1308.Under a mile1 min by road
St Conan’s KirkOne man's dream of a church on the shore of Loch Awe, begun in 1881, with a chapel holding a bone of Robert the Bruce.3 miles4 min by road
Loch EtiveA seventeen-mile sea loch from Connel into the mountains, with a pier at its head once served by steamers.5 miles7 min by road
Kilchurn CastleThe Campbells of Glenorchy's castle at the head of Loch Awe, with the oldest surviving barracks on the British mainland.6 miles9 min by road
Duncan Ban MacIntyre MonumentA pillared granite monument of 1859 above Dalmally to the Gaelic poet Duncan Bàn MacIntyre, looking down Loch Awe.7 miles11 min by road
Glen Nant National ForestA secluded ancient rainforest of oak, birch and hazel south of Taynuilt, once coppiced to fire the Bonawe furnace.8 miles10 min by road
Loch AweThe longest freshwater loch in Scotland, 23 miles through the hills of Argyll, with crannogs, island chapels and Campbell castles.18 miles28 min by roadPlaces to stay near the centre, and when each is next free.
Uisge Bothy
Beatha
Kabn
SlochdEvery photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. Printed twice a year, made in Scotland.
For further reading, before you go.
