Botallack Cornwall 365
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Evening Glow at Botallack
Place: »Botallack
Category: »Mining Heritage
About: Today we can appreciate views like this and marvel at the effects in the sky and sea. It is very doubtful if the miners of years ago would have given the sky much thougt as they made the long journey back to their homes after a day in the submarine m......
Photograph Added: 23rd January 2008
Evening Sun at Botallack
Place: »Botallack
Category: »Mining Heritage
About: Botallack is situated between the town of St Just in Penwith and the village of Pendeen the nearest town is Penzance. The sun about to set over the mine ruins on the edge of the cliff is an image that delights many visitors every year.
Photograph Added: 11th January 2008
The Crowns
Place: »Botallack
Category: »Mining Heritage
About: There is an even better view of The Crowns Mine to be had from further out on this small headland. Unfortunately the path is VERY narrow and the high wind made it far to dangerous.
Photograph Added: 6th June 2007
Mines and Sea Pinks
Place: »Botallack
Category: »Mining Heritage
About: Botallack is located seven miles north west of Penzance on the B3306.It has often been referred to as the submarine mine, its ruined cliffside engine houses seem to perch remarkably close to the cliff edge and the tunnels extend under the sea. For th......
Photograph Added: 3rd June 2007
Decline Shaft
Place: »Botallack
Category: »World Heritage Sites
About: In this photograph it is just possible to make out the remains of the decline shaft at the Crowns to the right of the photograph about half way up. This would have been wound from the top engine house via a wooden gantry.
Photograph Added: 16th September 2006
The Crowns
Place: »Botallack
Category: »World Heritage Sites
About: The Crowns engine houses. In the front of the top engine house you can see the water reservoir. Almost all engine houses in Cornwall would have had some kind of reserve water supply.
Photograph Added: 16th September 2006
About Botallack Cornwall.
Botallack is located seven miles north west of Penzance on the B3306.
Botallack Mine has been referred to as the submarine mine, its ruined vliffside engine houses perch remarkably close to the cliff edge and the tunnels extend under the sea. For this reason Botallack was well known even in its day and became almost a tourist attraction for royalty and adventurers. Royalty including Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort in 1846 and the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall in 1865,were among the famous visitors to go down the mine under the sea. Wilkie Collins the novelist wrote a terrifying account of his descent down into the mine in 1850. He reported that he could hear the roar of the surf above his head.
All miners faced the possibility of being injured or killed in the mine and many were blinded in blasting accident. At Botallack one such miner could not face life begging/hawking or help from the charity known as the parish relief and even though he was totally blind he continued to work underground to support his nine children. The book entitled Cornwall: Its Mines and Miners published in 1855 recounted that “such was his marvellous recollection of every turning and winding of this subterranean temple of human industry, that he became a guide to his fellow-labourers if by any accident their lights were extinguished.”
There was a widespread mine layout above the cliffs with eleven steam engines in 1865 and at this time Botallack employed 500 ‘persons’. Like many other mines in Cornwall the fall in the price of tin caused most of the mine to close in March 1895, although some workings still carried on in the shallow levels. Between 1907 and 1914 Botallack was reworked and arsenic flues and a stack were built on the cliff top. The ruins that are visible today show an arch carrying the flue which passes between the two main sections. Photographs of these wonderful old mine buildings give only a small picture, a visit is recommended to fully understand the precarious position of the mines and the working conditions the miners must have experienced.
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