Geology and Minerals
Simplified geology of the Botallack area showing principal rock types and
general direction of the imineral lodes.
Most of the Land’s End Peninsula consists of granite, a coarsely crystalline
igneous rock, formed deep in the earth around 280 million years ago. North-east
from Cape Cornwall dark-coloured slate and volcanic rocks comprise much of the
rugged cliffscape. Within both the granite and these older rocks near-vertical
veins (lodes), containing tin and copper, formed at right angles to the cliffs.
The pursuit of these lodes beneath the bed of the Atlantic Ocean challenged the
skills of the Cornish miner and brought worldwide fame to the St Just Mining
District. Levant Mine and the nearby Botallack Mine were the most successful of
these famous submarine enterprises.
The lodes in
the St Just Mining District were nearly vertical (dipping at 70° to 80°) and
narrow (less than a metre). They often contained mixed ores of tin, copper and
arsenic, with ore grades that were well above the average for Cornish mines.
CASSITERITE
The oxide of tin. The ore grade in St Just mines was often high, the coarsely
concentrated mineral being mined by single-handed ‘stoping’ of the narrow veins
within walls of hard country rock.
CHALCOCITE
This was the principal copper ore in the St Just District and is a rich sulphide
that contains 80% copper metal. This factor helps explain the success of the
coastal copper producers here.
CHALCOPYRITE
This was the commonest copper ore in Cornwall and West Devon, containing 35%
copper.
BORNITE
An important ore, particularly at Botallack, that contains 63% copper.
ARSENOPYRITE
This was the principal ore of arsenic and contains 45% of the semi-metal.
Botallack Mine Self-guided Trail
This trail takes you through an area of high cliffs and mine
shafts. Please take care not to place yourself or others at risk whilst
enjoying the landscape.
The trail starts and finishes at the Count House, Botallack.
The Count House, Botallack 
The Count House (Account House) was built in 1861-2 as the residence and offices
for the Captain and staff of Botallack Mine. In the heyday of Cornish mining,
count houses were the scene of lavish dinners when shareholders gathered to
examine the mine accounts.
The tin dinner service, used between 1843 and the mine’s closure in 1895, can be
seen in the Geevor Mine museum in Pendeen. Mineworkers also came here monthly
to be paid.
In 1995 the Count House was acquired and restored by the National Trust. It is
now a base for the Area Warden, and the adjacent workshop is a centre for
interpretation and education and is used for a variety of community events.
Leaving the Count House, turn right (north) past the remaining
walls of the mine’s blacksmith’s, sawmill and other buildings. Just beyond the
car park the track passes a gateway and the concrete remains of Botallack’s
early twentieth-century tin-dressing floors.
Continue along the main track, keeping the tall steel headframe
of Allen’s Shaft on your right. This marks an attempt in the 1980s by Geevor
Mine to re-open some of the Botallack workings and link them with Geevor.
Follow the main track until you reach the junction with the South
West Coast Path. This descends sharply on your left (marked by a finger post).
At this point you can take an optional detour to Wheal Cock.
Or, alternatively, take the Coast Path in the direction of the
tall chimney and extensive walled structures. As the path descends, there is a
fine view on your right across to the Crowns engine houses, perched above the
sea on Botallack Head. The conspicuous concrete terraced structures on the left
are the remains of the 1907 tin-dressing mill.
1906 tin-dressing floors 
The concrete plinths and floors mark the site of the mill used to process tin
ore during the last re-working. At the upper end are the huge foundations for
the stamps, which crushed the ore to a sandy pulp. Below it were various
devices for the extraction of the ‘black tin’ using water and gravity. Several
circular ‘buddles’ can be seen, upon which the heavy tin particles were
separated out from the lighter waste.
Beyond the tin-dressing floors, above the path and to the left of
the tall stack, are the remains of a square building with a distinctive archway
in buff-coloured brickwork. This was a Brunton calciner, and was the starting
point for the extraction of arsenic from Botallack ores during the 1906-1914
re-working.
1906 arsenic works 
Arsenic flues under construction
Botallack tin ore contained small quantities of arsenic and other metals. ‘Black
tin’ from the mill was roasted in a calciner which removed arsenic as a gas.
This was then condensed and collected as a saleable product.
The gases were led out of the calciner via a stone flue, now unroofed, which can
be followed inland to the arch-roofed condensing chambers. Beyond the
‘lambreth’ the remaining flue gases were drawn up the chimney stack.
The site is a designated Scheduled Monument and funding has recently enabled
work to stabilise the buildings and to remove the toxic arsenic deposits so
that the site can be explored safely.
By a finger post below the stack a pathway leaves the Coast Path
sharply to the right and offers a route down to the Crowns engine houses.
Crowns engine houses 
Crown's engine house with tin-dressing floors (foreground), 1860s.
The lower of the two engine houses was built in 1835 to pump water from the
mine. The higher engine house was built in 1862 to provide winding power for
the Boscawen Diagonal Shaft, which ran out under the sea.
Men were carried up and down the shaft in a gig, a purpose-built, wheeled box,
which was also used to raise ore. The Prince and Princess of Wales rode the gig
during their visit in July 1865, two years after a terrible accident, caused by
the gig-chain breaking, in which eight miners and a boy were killed.
Continue along the path. Two prominent engine houses lie ahead.
The one beyond the burrows, immediately beside the left of the track, is the
engine house of West Wheal Owles, whilst the more ruinous one on the right is
the stamps engine house of Wheal Edward. Both structures were restored in 1995
by the National Trust as part of its Centenary Year celebrations.
West Wheal Owles 
Wheal Edward stamps, late nineteenth century.
This mine was the scene of a tragic disaster in January 1893 when, due to a
surveying error, miners accidentally blasted through into the abandoned flooded
workings of Wheal Drea.
The sudden inrush of water flooded the mine and drowned nineteen men and a boy.
The mine was closed and their bodies were never recovered.
With the engine house of Wheal Edward on your immediate right,
take the path that turns sharply back on your left. This takes you past the
pumping engine house of West Wheal Owles again (on your left) with the Count
House in the distance. Keep following the main track (part of the old tramway).
On the skyline off to your right is the engine house of Wheal Owles. When you
reach the car track from Botallack village, turn left and head back towards the
Count House. On your right you pass a single-storied dwelling: Botallack Vean.
Botallack Vean 
On the re-opening of the mine in 1906 this was built as accommodation and a
survey school for the Penzance School of Mines. Owned by the National Trust
since 1998, it now provides a base for full-time volunteers.
Ahead of you lies the Count House, Botallack.
Optional tour to Wheal Cock (blue path)
Continue along the track (now the Coast Path heading north).
Beyond the fenced-off area around Allen’s Shaft, a low grassy mound protects
the quarry-like tin-workings of Grylls Bunny.
Shafts on the cliff edge at Wheal Cock section, Botallack Mine, early 1890s.
These extend on either side of the track. At the fork in the
track, take the Coast Path on the left that heads towards the chimney stack of
Carn Whim on the cliff-top of Botallack Head. At times there are glimpses of
the Crowns engine houses on the rocks below.
Passing the stack follow the path past heaps of rocky mine waste and then head
for the conspicuous concrete triangulation pillar, to the right of a stone wall
that surrounds a small quarry.
Ahead are two concrete engine mountings that belong to the Wheal Cock section
of Botallack Mine. Beyond these are the sprawling burrows - waste rock tips -
of Wheal Cock. Soon a prominent circular wall around the collar of Skip Shaft
comes into view on the left (this is fitted with a safety grill). A view
seaward from here reveals, down-slope, the circular shaft top of Wheal Cock
Engine Shaft on a level platform above a massive retaining wall built into the
cliff top at the time of the 1906 re-opening. Back on the path, pass the stone
walls on your immediate right that mark the site of the miners’ changing house
or dry. Turn right and follow the path back to re-join the track. Turn right
again and head back (south), passing the cottages on your left.
You will soon arrive back near Allen’s Shaft headframe.
Archive photographs: Courtesy of the Trounson-Bullen Collection.
This map is based upon Ordnance Survey material with the
permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown
copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings.
Cornwall County Council 100019590, 2005.
Wildlife
The cliffs of Botallack are
a haven for many maritime animals and plants.
Habitats are diverse, and range from the open ocean and steep cliffs to
heathland and a patchwork of ancient small granite-walled fields. Cape Cornwall
and the headlands of Botallack and Kenidjack are good lookouts for basking
sharks and sociable family groups of dolphins. Shoals of mackerel and herring
make the offshore a feeding ground for seabirds such as gannets, fulmars and
kittiwakes.
Island rocks and
secluded boulder-strewn coves and caves provide haul-out sites for Atlantic
grey seals. The cliffs offer isolation and shelter for breeding sea-birds
whilst rare lichens and rock crevice plants thrive. In spring and summer,
clifftop hedgerows are transformed by the colours of flowering sea campion,
thrift, thyme, scabious and centaury, attracting many butterflies and moths.
Wind-cropped maritime heathland becomes a purple carpet of ling and bell
heather, interspersed with bright yellow gorse.
The hollows and
open workings of old mines provide damp niches for ferns and mosses whilst mine
shafts and the underground environment are important bat roosts. Even the mine
wastes provide micro-habitats for animals and specialised plants such as lichen
and liverworts.
What the Trust is doing
The National Trust bought and restored the Count House in 1995 and acquired
Botallack Cliffs in 2000. Since then there has been an on-going programme of
safety, access and conservation works. This has been undertaken in partnership
with Cornwall County Council and assisted by local staff and volunteers.
Safety
works
Engine houses have been consolidated and shafts have been secured and made safe.
Botallack’s former arsenic works has been de-contaminated and the structures
consolidated to preserve the remains and to permit safe access.
Conservation
work
The National Trust has restored the Count House and has conserved many of the
engine houses and other mining structures around Botallack, including important
tin- and arsenic-processing remains.
Habitat
restoration
Abandoned mining ground provides varied and special habitats for wildlife.
Important heathland is maintained and mine shafts have been hedged and fenced
in a traditional manner that is sensitive to ecology.
Access
Existing footpaths have been maintained and a new car parking area and pathways
created.
Events
A programme of events includes an annual steam fair, mining history talks,
guided walks, exhibitions, workshops and cliff-top drama.
Contact: The Count House, Botallack 01736 788588
Location: OS Explorer Map 102 SW364336
By foot: South West Coast Path passes nearby
By bus: Penzance to Botallack (contact Traveline on 0870 6082608 or
www.traveline.org.uk
By train: 7 miles from Penzance station
By road: 3 miles west of Pendeen on B3306 St Just - St Ives road
Separate designated disabled parking. Adapted WC.
Braille guide & large print. Sensory list.
Other sites to visit in the area
Levant - National Trust working beam engine and historic mining
site OS Explorer Map 102 SW 368346
Geevor Mine (not National Trust) - mining heritage museum OS
Explorer Map 102 SW 375347
Pendeen Lighthouse - Trinity House OS Explorer Map 102 SW
379359
Acknowledgments
This self guided trail was produced by the St Just Heritage Area Regeneration
Project - funded by the European Regional Development Fund, South West Regional
Development Agency, Cornwall County Council, the National Trust, Penwith
District Council, St Just Town Council, Pendeen Residents Association, Cornwall
Wildlife Trust and others. For further information on the St Just Heritage Area
see www.landsendarea.co.uk
www.landsendarea.co.uk
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
