Hagdale Horse Mill

The reconstructed remains of a horse-powered chromite crushing circle survive at what was the largest chromite mine in 19th century Britain.

The quarry west of Hagdale Horse Mill was established in the 1830s to extract chromite, which was much in demand for making paints and dyes. The quarry was nearly 40m deep and was the largest chromite working in Britain.

In the early years the rock was extracted by hand and then crushed by the now restored horse driven crushing circle. Later a much more sophisticated crushing and sorting plant was established and a railway carried the chromite to Baltasound for shipping. Extraction ceased in the 1940s and some rusty machinery can still be found in the quarry to the south.

Chromite occurs as pods and veins within dunite, which is one of the rocks that make up the Shetland ophiolite – a section of oceanic crust that became stranded on top of continental crust during a massive continental collision. Dunite is made of the mineral olivine, some of which was altered to serpentine during the collision. Rock made mainly of serpentine is called serpentinite.

In the 1950s the focus at Hagdale turned to serpentinite, which was extracted from the upper quarry to line furnaces. Interpretive panels at the site will tell you more about the mill and the industry.