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338:'s water supply. Two work squads began at each end of the tunnel, and met half way almost 800 metres under the mountain. The technology in the day was lacking in every standard, and was lit by candlelight. When the two squads met, they were mere inches off. The tunnel measures 8 feet (2.4 m) square – and 2.25 miles (3.62 km) long. Its entry is at Dunnywater and its exit is on the roadside, a short distance from the visitor's centre. The Binnian Tunnel was officially opened on Thursday, 28 August 1952.
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south, and the
Annalong river, lying parallel to and to the east of the Kilkeel river, draining the Annalong Valley. The catchment of the Kilkeel river is 5,500 acres in extent, that of the Annalong river being 3,500 acres. The water of both these rivers is similar and of excellent quality, having 2 degrees of
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being the highest mountain within the area. It is practically devoid of trees, being covered with heather, gorse, and bracken where not granite rock and boulders. The average rainfall on the area is 57.6 inches per annum. It is drained by two streams : on the west, the
Kilkeel river flowing due
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to impound the
Annalong River. However, after the difficulties encountered in building the Silent Valley dam the second dam was not built. Instead, a tunnel was driven under Slieve Binnian between 1947 and 1951 to bring water from the Annalong river to the Silent Valley reservoir. Between 1953 and
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Private Acts of
Parliament (in 1893, 1897 and 1899) allowed the BC&DWC to secure the 9,000-acre (3,600 ha) catchment area with associated access and water rights. At the time the catchment was capable of providing some 30 million imperial gallons (140,000 m) of water per day,
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The portion of the Mourne
Mountains acquired by the Commissioners totals approximately 9,000 acres. It is all mountainland , uninhabited, and a large part of it is rocky and precipitous. It extends from about 330 feet above sea-level to a maximum of 2,796 feet above sea-level,
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The second stage was to build a storage reservoir, the Silent Valley
Reservoir, across the Kilkeel River. Design work on this phase began in 1910, but procurement of the work was delayed by
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McIldowie, G. (1935). "The
Construction of the Silent Valley Reservoir, Belfast Water-Supply" Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 1935, 239:1935, pp. 465-516
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237:. These water pipes were capable of supplying 10 million imperial gallons (45,000 m) of water per day. Work was completed in 1901.
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valley to the Silent Valley Dam, which had been completed in 1933, 14 years earlier. This was to further supply the growing demands of
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182:). The reservoir was built between 1923 and 1933 by a workforce of over 1,000 men, nine of whom died during construction.
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421:"A Century of Water from the Mournes - Part 2 A concise history - The Silent Valley Reservoir - 1910 - 1933"
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The first stage was to divert water from the
Kilkeel and Annalong rivers through the newly constructed
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to investigate options for a source of an additional water supply for the expanding city of
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is supposed to derive from the absence of bird life during the long construction project.
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however as this much was not required immediately, a three phase approach was followed:
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356:"Your Place And Mine - Down - A Century of Water from the Mournes - a concise history"
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1957, a second dam was built further up the
Kilkeel river valley to create
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Acheson, Ben (1 February 2023). "From Happy Valley to new
Watertown".
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The third stage was planned to be another storage reservoir in
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In 1891, the Belfast Water Commissioners (BWC and later the
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467:"The Binnian Tunnel - Introduction and Background"
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296:apparently due to the jollity of prospecting
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18:Reservoir in County Down, Northern Ireland
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275:Panorama of the Silent Valley Reservoir
523:Northern Ireland coast and countryside
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533:Tourist attractions in County Down
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528:Reservoirs in County Down
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508:Newry and Mourne tourism
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148:Silent Valley Reservoir
140:United Kingdom, Ireland
57:Silent Valley Reservoir
24:Silent Valley Reservoir
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176:Northern Ireland Water
503:at Wikimedia Commons
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194:or BC&DWC) hired
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308:The Binnian Tunnel
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258:Ben Crom Reservoir
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401:. 16 October 2014
300:miners. The name
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290:Cú Chulainn
266:Mourne Wall
242:World War I
164:County Down
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84:Coordinates
73:County Down
517:Categories
342:References
235:Carryduff
152:reservoir
128:reservoir
123:Lake type
471:BBC News
425:BBC News
399:BBC News
365:21 April
332:Annalong
253:Annalong
218:hardness
69:Location
477:25 June
431:25 June
405:25 June
336:Belfast
298:Cornish
200:Belfast
186:History
172:Belfast
160:Kilkeel
94:54°08′N
328:tunnel
326:. The
320:tunnel
280:Naming
97:6°00′W
158:near
150:is a
135:Basin
479:2020
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367:2021
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
