Mines in Shetland Islands

Scotland's northernmost archipelago, geologically distinct from the rest of Britain: much of Unst and Fetlar sits on the Shetland Ophiolite Complex, a slice of ancient oceanic crust and upper mantle thrust onto land rather than the sedimentary or granite-hosted vein geology typical of the mainland, hosting chromite, serpentine and talc workings found nowhere else in the UK. Its metal-mining history centres on Sandlodge, the islands' best-known and most productive metal mine, worked on and off for well over a century after copper was discovered there in 1789 — reportedly after a party of Welsh miners was brought in specially to investigate the ground.

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