Old mining village which once housed 500 miners
Web: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cornwall/botallack
St. Just-in-Penwith Town Council
The village is in a former tin mining area situated between the town of St. Just and the village of Pendeen along the B3306 road which heads towards St. Ives.
The Botallack Mine sits low down the cliffs north of Botallack. In Botallack's heyday around 500 men, women and children were employed by the mine. Botallack was a submarine mine with tunnels extending under the sea, in places for half a mile. Between its opening and decommissioning in 1914 some twenty thousand tons of copper were produced.
In the 1860's, during a major re-organisation of the mine, a new diagonal shaft was excavated out under the sea to a depth of 500 meters. A new winding engine was installed, in the higher of the two engine houses.
The Prince and Princess of Wales (future King Edward VII) descended this shaft in 1865 to inaugurate the new section of the mine. Botallack soon became a popular tourist destination for those wishing to follow in their footsteps. It became so popular that the mine started charging a guinea a head.
The mine closed in 1895 as a result of falling tin and copper prices.
The BBC television series Poldark was filmed partly in Botallack, using Manor Farm as Nampara.
Cape Cornwall Morvah St. Just Pendeen The Coastal Footpath
Botallack Mine Levant Beam Engine Geevor Mine South Crofty Mine Mining in Cornwall