When Star Wars took over a Scottish hydro scheme

The makers of Star Wars series Andor have described filming in Scotland as a highlight of the show's on-location shooting.

Scenes for episode six, The Eye, were filmed in and around the Cruachan hydro-electric scheme near Dalmally in Argyll.

Production designer Luke Hull said the renewable energy site, with its dam and underground power station, had given the makers of the Disney series the look they had been aspiring to capture.

He added: “If you look at the dam, it looks like Darth Vader’s mask."

Cruachan was opened in 1965 and involves a 316m (1,037ft), 46m (15ft) long dam.

Its power station is housed within a huge cavern dug out inside the mountain Ben Cruachan and gives the hydro-electric scheme its nickname, "Hollow Mountain".

Andor is a prequel to the 2016 Star Wars spin-off film Rogue One and follows main character Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna. The first of its 12 episodes was shown in September.

Hull, who also worked on HBO's TV mini series Chernobyl, said: "A highlight of on-location shooting was traveling the production to the Cruachan Dam."

Hull said the production crew had been intrigued with the idea of creating a planet in Scotland's mountains.

He said: "So many of the Star Wars planets are desert or ice, so it was interesting to find a tangible landscape that could form a different version of a planet.”

Cruachan's owners, Drax, made a series of charitable donations after Disney used the site.

Funds went towards a new vehicle for Oban Mountain Rescue Team and creating a rural defibrillator network with community councils.

A donation was made to support the ongoing maintenance and restoration of St Conans Kirk, a historic visitor attraction in the Argyll village of Lochawe.