One chilly winter’s day in 1841, Carl Westerholm, a spry, observant farmhand, was looking for ore in an old “mine croft” belonging to the village of Hienshyttan. With the aid of a borrowed mine compass a stretch of ore 700 m long was ringed in. The discovery was crucial for the continued development of Långshyttan as an ironworks, securing the supply of iron ore.
Rällingsberg consists of four mines which are beautifully located and surprisingly open, in the middle of a sloping arable landscape. When the mine was at its biggest, roughly a hundred men and women worked here. All that remains today is the dynamite store, mine house, engine house, ore separating house, and a transformer station. The area also preserves the ruins of the ore dressing plant and an extensive transport system with canals, railway, and ropeway. The mine was closed in 1932.