Hillend Reservoir

Hillend Loch is a naturalised reservoir established between 1797 and 1799 when the North Calder Water was dammed to supply water for the Monkland Canal, an enterprise which employed up to 1,500 people at one time. It was, at the time the dam was constructed, the largest man-made reservoir in the world. It still supplies water to the Forth & Clyde Canal and the remains of the Monkland Canal. As well as the storage of water for the canals, the loch was used to supply water to the steel and paper mills in the new industrial towns of Airdrie and Coatbridge. In 1867 the reservoir passed into the ownership of the Caledonian Railway, and when the railways were nationalised in 1948 became publicly…