Sil­ver­fal­let-Karls­fors*

At Silverfallet–Karlsfors natu­re reser­ve you can see signs of sto­ne quar­ry­ing and remains that were part of Karls­fors alum and limesto­ne quarry.

For a litt­le over a cen­tu­ry the­re was an exten­si­ve quar­ry­ing indu­stry here, with a quar­ry that employed hund­reds of peop­le, and a post office, bank and shop down at Karls­fors manor.

The con­di­tions were ide­al for a quar­ry here. Run­ning water from the mountain dro­ve the mills and it was easy to quar­ry both alum sha­le and limesto­ne from the slo­pes at Bil­ling­en. The alum was crushed and used as a che­mi­cal salt for appli­ca­tions such as paper­ma­king. Limesto­ne pro­duc­tion was on a smal­ler sca­le than alum quar­ry­ing, and the limesto­ne was most­ly quar­ri­ed by far­mers from near­by farms during the win­ter half of the year. Alum quar­ry­ing was clo­sed down in 1956, whi­le limesto­ne quar­ry­ing con­ti­nu­ed on a small sca­le until the 1920s.

Sil­ver­fal­let is situ­a­ted on pri­va­te land, so ple­a­se show con­si­de­ra­tion. Park in the assig­ned area and do not lea­ve any lit­ter. In sum­mer the­re are gra­zing ani­mals in the area, so dogs must be kept on a lead.