Right, afraid I can't do much in terms of history for this as the info is all in Finnish and my Finnish is pretty poor. Have heard that this site has served as both a wood pulp factory (for sending to nearby paper mills) and a saw blade factory, at different times. Looks to have most recently manufactured wood pulp, and I've also been told it closed in 1938. If this is true it's in ridiculously incredible condition, so I'm tempted to say the factory closed when the company Halla, founded in 1871, ended operations in 1986.
The company seems to have originally leased the entire peninsula that the factory stands on, and there is evidence around the site of demolished larger buildings, so I think it was a fairly large operation.
Apologies for poor photos, I just enjoy the exploring and I'm not really a photographer. I also had messed my foot up the day before and had to use a stick to walk the 4km to this place, so I wasn't able to explore it quite as comprehensively as I would have liked!
First we checked out this disused railway bridge crossing over to the peninsula; presumably this brought wood to the factories here.
Underneath one end of the bridge was a small brick building with these devices in...there were also a few holes in the floor showing water underneath, and lots of bases for machinery. Any ideas what this might be?
Exterior shot - looks like it was quite nice looking in its heyday as factories go.
Main factory floor:
Upper level at the rear of the previous image
Power room - was very happy to find this!
Looking down from the top of the tower at the front; there was oddly no way into this other than by going onto the roof - didn't fancy climbing the chimney too though!
Just in front of the factory was a smaller building of traditional Scandinavian timber construction - it seems to have been a locker room for workers and maybe a social club or offices of some kind.
I find it odd that they left their shoes behind...
Round the back of the factory there were some pipes inside a big square concrete tunnel (mostly above ground) that looked to go on for a long way. Could have been something interesting down there but didn't have the light or foot health to investigate!
Anyhow, I'll leave you with this beautiful Finnish evening...
The company seems to have originally leased the entire peninsula that the factory stands on, and there is evidence around the site of demolished larger buildings, so I think it was a fairly large operation.
Apologies for poor photos, I just enjoy the exploring and I'm not really a photographer. I also had messed my foot up the day before and had to use a stick to walk the 4km to this place, so I wasn't able to explore it quite as comprehensively as I would have liked!
First we checked out this disused railway bridge crossing over to the peninsula; presumably this brought wood to the factories here.
Underneath one end of the bridge was a small brick building with these devices in...there were also a few holes in the floor showing water underneath, and lots of bases for machinery. Any ideas what this might be?
Exterior shot - looks like it was quite nice looking in its heyday as factories go.
Main factory floor:
Upper level at the rear of the previous image
Power room - was very happy to find this!
Looking down from the top of the tower at the front; there was oddly no way into this other than by going onto the roof - didn't fancy climbing the chimney too though!
Just in front of the factory was a smaller building of traditional Scandinavian timber construction - it seems to have been a locker room for workers and maybe a social club or offices of some kind.
I find it odd that they left their shoes behind...
Round the back of the factory there were some pipes inside a big square concrete tunnel (mostly above ground) that looked to go on for a long way. Could have been something interesting down there but didn't have the light or foot health to investigate!
Anyhow, I'll leave you with this beautiful Finnish evening...