Hagdale Horse Mill

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The horse mill was built around 1850 and recently restored by the Shetland Amenity Trust.

The horse-powered mill was used for crushing chromite rock which was quarried from the Hagdale Quarry, located at the base of the Keen of Hamar in Unst.

The circular stone crushing wheel in the mill has an iron rim, and it was held vertically by a long shaft mounted on a central pillar. It was run by a horse harnessed to the shaft, walking around in a circle and driving the wheel around a pan, into which the mined ore was shoveled. A water stream was led by a channel into the pan, and the water flushed away the lighter crushed rock, leaving the heavy chromite in the pan.

The quarry was the most important chromite mine in Britain for many years, and quarrying was carried out between the years 1820 and 1944.

The refurbishment of the horse mill involved the provision of an access track and path, the re-routing of a stream, the construction of boundary fencing and the erection of three information panels.