Rodel Turbine

Keith Andrews

We received this letter from Warren Allison:

My partner and I are on holiday on the Isle of Lewis and spotted remains of equipment manufactured by Armfield and Company Ltd in a small building near the church at Rodel. Please see the attached photos.

I thought your organisation would be interested and have copied the company in. We would be interested to know anything about the equipment and what it was used for. The building is right on the shore line and there is a road leading to the cliff where it abruptly stops.

First, I must point out that Rodel is on Harris, rather than Lewis (although they are on the same island), at its south eastern tip.

Andy Fish found this information about it on Canmore, the National Record of Historic Environment.

There you will see that it was a hydro powered generator/turbine house, with its supply pipe and machinery of second world war vintage still in place at the time of Professor Hume’s visit. There are several historic pictures from 1976 and more recent ones from 2011 as well as detailed information on that website.