Loch Leven is a shallow loch in Scotland whose outlet is artificially managed through sluices by the River Leven Trust. It has important bird populations and trout fishing. In the 19th century, the loch was partly drained and land reclaimed, forming the River Leven. The River Leven Trustees are responsible for controlling water flow to avoid flooding and supply water to industry. Today, the sluicekeeper and team manage water levels and flows to the remaining industrial users, including a paper mill, distillery, and water turbines.

1. Loch Leven Sluices
Information pack
Kinross High School
9 February 2009

2. Loch Leven

3. Loch Leven
• The loch is mostly shallow - average depth only
4 metres.
• Four major burns drain into the loch from the
surrounding hills and glacial valley.
• The outlet from the loch is artificially managed
through sluices by the River Leven Trust.
• The River Leven flows into the Firth of Forth
24km downstream.

4. Loch Leven
• National Nature reserve
• Natura 2000 site special protection area
due to important bird populations
• Ramsar site - for wetland and bird interest
• Site of special scientific interest - for
plants, birds, insects

5. Loch Leven Fishery
• Loch Leven is also world renowned for
brown trout fishing.

6. Management of the loch
• The loch was partly drained for the
benefit of landowners and industry in
1828-32.
• The River Leven was formed into a four
mile long channel (the cut) and
hundreds of acres of land made
available for reclamation.
• An Act of Parliament was passed in
1827 in relation to the making of the cut

8. River Leven Trustees
• Under the River Leven Acts the Trustees
are required to
• avoid flooding for protection of farmland
around the loch and cut
• provide a continuous supply of a minimum
and steady flow of water to industry, and
as high a flow as possible to those using
the river to generate power.

9. Managing the Flow of Water
• The River Leven Trust continues to control
the flow of water from the Loch through
the sluices.
• This is performed by the Sluicekeeper -
Mrs Hunter, and the Sluice management
team.

10. Management of Loch levels
• Sluicekeeper records loch level, current
sluice settings, rainfall and wind direction.
• Sluice management team member
compares the loch levels to an ideal level
from a graph and may decide to alter the
sluice settings.
• This ensures optimum control of levels for
the time of year.

11. Use of Water from the River
Leven
• In 1848 there were no fewer than 40 non
agricultural water users on the River
Leven
• Now there is one paper mill, a distillery,
and two water turbines.
• The consistent supply of water is no less
important today for those remaining users

12. Water Users in 2009
• Smith Anderson - water turbine
• Tullis Russell - papermaking, turbine
condenser cooling, water turbine
• Cameronbrig Distillery - cooling water
• Balgonie Turbines - water turbine