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Lochaber refers to a large area of the central and western Scottish Highlands. From 1975 the name Lochaber applied to a local government district within the Highland Region, which also included the islands of Rum, Eigg, Muck and Canna. In 1996 administrative functions were taken over the Highland unitary council. (See: Subdivisions of Scotland)

The Lochaber hydroelectric scheme was a power generation project constructed in the western Scottish Highlands after the First World War. Like its predecessor at Kinlochleven, it was intended to provide electricity for aluminium production, this time at Fort William, a little further north. The scheme was initially designed by engineer Charles Meik but after his death in 1923, the scheme’s realisation was left to William Halcrow, by then a partner in the firm originally founded by Meik’s father Thomas MeikThomas Meik ( 20 January 1812 22 April 1896) was a British engineer, born in Duddingston, Midlothian. He was particularly associated with ports and railways in Scotland and northern England, and fathered two prominent engineering sons: Patrick Meik and Ch.

The project was finally sanctioned by Parliament in 1921, but construction did not start until 1924; the aluminium smelter was established in 1929 and took about 95% of the 82,000kW of power generated.

The scheme harnessed the headwaters of the Rivers Treig and Spean and the floodwaters of the River Spey (plus a further eleven streams along the way). The Laggan Dam (213m long and 55m high) contained the flow of the Spean in a reservoirA reservoir ( French: reservoir is an artificial lake created by flooding land behind a dam. Some of the world's largest lakes are reservoirs. Surveyors have to find river valleys which are deep and narrow; the valley sides can then act as natural walls. (Loch Laggan). A 4km tunnelSwitzerland subway. canal tunnel. A tunnel is an underground passage. When designed for use by traffic, it may be called an underpass . It may be for pedestrians and/or cyclists, for general road traffic, for motor vehicles only, for rail traffic, or for then linked this body of water with another reservoir (Loch Treig) contained by the Treig dam. From here, the main tunnel, until 1970 the longest water-carrying tunnel in the world, an enormous 24km (15 miles) long and 5m in diameter, was driven through the Ben NevisBen Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles. It is situated in the west of Scotland, close to the town of Fort William. This imposing colossus is one of 284 Munros (mountains in Scotland that reach an elevation of 3,000 feet or more). There is massif. From the western mountainside, down five massive steel pipes, the water rushed towards the turbines in the power house at the smelting plant.