Carsfad Loch

Carsfad Loch on the Water of Ken - St. John's Town of Dalry. Water of Ken rises just to the south east of the watershed at Polskeoch; less than a kilometre from the head waters of Scaur Water on the other side of the watershed. It heads in a generally southern direction and joins the Water of Deugh some two and a half kilometres north of Kendoon power station which is the second in a series of such power stations running all the way down through the Glenkens from Drumjohn near Loch Doon (which is used as a reservoir for the system and whose level was raised by 27 feet by damming in the 1930s) to Tongland near Kirkcudbright. This series of power stations is called Galloway hydro-electric power scheme. The next two power stations are at Carsfad Loch and Earlstoun Loch with Water of Ken running through them to the fourth power station at Glenlee (one kilometre south west of St John's Town of Dalry) and onward as far as Parton village (where James Clerk Maxwell is buried) on Loch Ken, where it is subsumed into the River Dee. The southern end of Loch Ken is shown with the alternative title of River Dee on the Ordnance Survey maps. River Dee itself starts from Loch Dee as Black Water of Dee. It runs through Clatteringshaws Loch where in the 1930s a dam was placed on it to form another reservoir for the Galloway hydro-electric power scheme. From Loch Ken the River Dee flows south past Threave Castle (which is on an island in the river) and into Kirkcudbright Bay and thence into the Solway Firth.
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