A century-old reservoir containing 15 million gallons that used to provide drinking water for the Moray town of Buckie is set to vanish.

Rochomie Reservoir, in the hills south of the town, was formed in 1908 by building a large dam across the steep sided valley of the Bogfud burn. It stopped being used for the area’s drinking water 8 years ago when supplies were switched to boreholes at Dipple near the River Spey south of Fochabers.

The drinking water production plant at Rochomie is to remain and is currently undergoing a £1.5m upgrade in new equipment to improve the clarity and quality of the supply. It would cost half a million pounds to bring the dam and reservoir up to modern standards, so Scottish Water plans to return the area to its natural state.

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Andy Ducat of Scottish Water’s Capital Investment Delivery team said: "Draining the reservoir and removing the dam wall is the best option. There are no formal fishing rights and given the investment required to maintain it, it’s difficult to imagine anyone wanting to take it on. It’s a piece of engineering history so we’re alerting people now to give anyone interested time to say goodbye. In the New Year we’ll start to lower the water level and eventually take away the dam. It’s essential that we are not spending our customers' money maintaining an unnecessary asset."

(BMcC/KMcA)