A sky-high milestone has been reached in the Beauly-Denny project with the competition of a new electrical tower 2,500ft up a remote Scottish mountain.
The structure, on the Corrieyairack Pass, is now the highest pylon in the UK.
Engineers for SSE Power Distribution faced challenging terrain and harsh weather to build it on the summit.
The controversial high-voltage powerline has been under construction since March 2012.
When complete it will stretch 137 miles from the Highlands to the central belt.
A nine mile track was built so that workers could reach the summit of the Corrieyairack Pass, which lies between Fort Augustus and Laggan.
Mark Mathieson, the firm’s managing director, said: “We have been working towards this milestone for over three years and are extremely proud of today’s achievement. It has been a tough hill to climb and we wanted to mark the topping out of the UK’s highest elevated tower in the history books.”
“As a mark of respect to the engineers and linesmen who constructed the original line, we felt it was right to remember their efforts to bring power to the Highlands of Scotland.
“The project team of the 1950s would have had a very different experience to construction teams of today; they would have had no heavy machinery to assist with lifting or pulling, no goretex waterproofs and literally no safety equipment available. Compared to today’s available equipment and standards, it was amazing that the original line was completed at all.”