Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 10, 2026

River E

The River E is a river in the Highlands of Scotland. It begins in the north-west of the Monadh Liath, to the south-east of Loch Ness. It runs in a north-westerly direction for about 10 km, before flowing into Loch Mhòr. The river has a catchment area of 26.7 km2 (10.3 sq mi) which has an annual rainfall of around 1.4 m giving an average flow around 0.88 cubic metres per second (31 cu ft/s).

Last revised
Jul 10, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
366 w
Citations
9
Source
Confluence with the Allt a' Ghille Charaich source ↗

The River E is a river in the Highlands of Scotland. It begins in the north-west of the Monadh Liath, to the south-east of Loch Ness. It runs in a north-westerly direction for about 10 km, before flowing into Loch Mhòr.123 The river has a catchment area of 26.7 km2 (10.3 sq mi) which has an annual rainfall of around 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) giving an average flow around 0.88 cubic metres per second (31 cu ft/s).4

Flow of the neighbouring River Fechlin is diverted into the River E. The Fechlin aqueduct was constructed as part of the Foyers pumped-storage hydropower scheme in the 1970s, and can divert up to 24 m3/s (850 cu ft/s) of water, which discharges into the River E over a series of energy dissipating weirs.4 The aqueduct outflow is approximately 1 km (0.6 mi) upstream of Loch Mhòr.

Horseshoe bend in the river source ↗

The river has a small hydro-electric scheme. This run-of-the-river scheme has a capacity of 3MW and is operated by RWE Npower. Construction of the scheme began in 2006, and it was commissioned in 2007.5 It has a single weir across the River E at an elevation of just over 500 m (1,600 ft),2 with a catchment area of 16 km2 (6.2 sq mi). The scheme has a hydraulic head of 287 m (942 ft), with water transferred to the powerhouse via an 800 mm (31 in) glass-reinforced plastic pipe approx. 4 km (2.5 mi) long. Power is generated by a twin-jet horizontal-axis Pelton turbine.5

View along the river source ↗

The River E is among the shortest place names in the world.6

References

References

  1. Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale Landranger map sheet 26 Inverness
  2. Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Explorer
  3. Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 scale StreetView
  4. Miller, D.J.; Murray, A.T.L.; Marshall, C.C.; Argent, G.G.R. (1975). "Foyers pumped-storage project". Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. 122 (11): 1222. doi:10.1049/piee.1975.0303.
  5. "River E Hydro Scheme". RWE Npower. Archived from the original on 1 April 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  6. Ash, Russell (10 November 2011). Boring, Botty and Spong. RHCP. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-4090-9739-6.

57°13′08″N 4°27′39″W / 57.21891°N 4.46082°W / 57.21891; -4.46082