Press visit to the hydro-electric scheme – January 1971


Indeed, the Cruachan Visitors Centre chronicles what life would have been like for the Tunnel Tigers, whose PPE consisted of a helmet made of compacted cardboard and a pair of wellies, the cost of which was deducted from their pay.


Shifts were gruelling – they ranged from 12 hours to an astonishing 36. Because the work was so dangerous, pay was exceedingly high – about £110 a week at a time when the average labourer’s pay was a mere £10 weekly.


Ultimately, 36 workers died during the construction of Cruachan, and an unknown number died years later from illnesses related to their work on site, such as emphysema.


On the 50th anniversary in 2015, the Daily Record spoke to former workers including John, then 76, from Donegal.


John said, “There was no health and safety then, that’s why I am wearing a hearing aid now.


“The noise was unbelievable – for the first fortnight I was stone deaf. I couldn’t talk, it was just sign language. You got stones overhanging and some could weigh over a ton, everybody looked out for me, everybody saved my life, everybody saved everybody’s lives.”


He added, “It was amazing that more workers weren’t killed…We were all mad, you had to be. I would never go down today.”


Marian said while workers who worked across multiple sites for the project


would have been in a union, the average labourer was not. Ultimately, health and safety issues at Cruachan were a turning point, and helped inform health and safety legislation and attitudes in the coming years.


Marian also paid homage to the Scottish Labour MP Tom Johnston, a hydroelectric power visionary who was a “true socialist” and supported workers in need of a union. She dedicated her book to Johnston.


What surprised Marian most in researching her book was how welcoming the local community was towards the influx of thousands of workers who’d come to build Cruachan Dam.


“I thought they might be a bit resentful having their rural community turned upside down by so many newcomers,” she said. “But my preconceptions were shattered after speaking to people who lived there at the time – they embraced the project.


“Many workers came with their families and rented cottages and caravans. Bosses stayed in local hotels. Rural schools on the brink of closure because of dwindling student numbers were suddenly full and had to hire more staff. Some workers married women from the area and stayed.”


Marian believes we can all learn from the story of Cruachan Dam.


“It shows with the right political will, and if we listened to building workers, we can take on these big, ambitious projects.


37 unite buildingWORKER Autumn 2025


Closing the new dam on Ben Cruachan – December 1964


It takes an enormous amount of skill to complete a project like Cruachan – you don’t dig out half a mountain without being exceptionally skilled. There’s too much emphasis these days on university qualifications. We need more apprenticeships and more big projects so workers can hone their skills.”


She added that we cannot shrink from ambition in an age when sustainable energy projects are the key to our future. While Cruachan Power Station is unique in that most of it, besides the dam, isn’t visible, Marian despairs when people criticise wind turbines for being ugly.


She recounted speaking to a woman local to Cruachan Dam who had married one of the Tunnel Tigers.


“He had long passed away, and she was quite elderly. There was a new local wind energy project, and she had asked an engineer if she could be taken up to see one of the turbines. When she returned, she said, ‘They’re beautiful – they’re like angels!’ This is coming from a woman who had known only Cruachan, which is mostly invisible. This is the attitude we need.


“Whether it’s wind, solar, or tidal, these projects – and the workers who make them possible – are the angels that will secure our futures.”


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If you have an idea of an iconic building for this page send them in to buildingWORKER by emaling the Ed amanda.campbell@unitetheunion.org


All images: Alamy


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