Botallack Mine
 

The Crowns engine houses are precariously sited on a promontory just above the sea. Their dramatic setting has inspired generations of writers, artists and photographers. There is great technical interest in the inclined Boscawen Diagonal Shaft (sunk 1858-62) that runs out under the Ocean bed to a distance of 800m from the cliffs.

 

 

Botallack Mine, Crowns engine houses (lower pumping house 1835, higher whim house 1862)

At the top of the cliff-slope there are the remains of one of the finest surviving arsenic-refining works in Britain with remarkable extant flues and a large double bayed labyrinth. The chimney stack dates from an earlier working (it was associated with a stamps engine). The tin-dressing floors that survive in the surrounding landscape show the evolution of mineral-processing technologies from small-scale eighteenth century earthworks to the conspicuous concrete remains dating from 1906.

 

Botallack Mine. The recently (2004) consolidated remains of a Brunton calciner (1906)

Botallack Mine, Count-house (Listed Grade II). A count-house (‘account house’) was the mine’s office and they were the scene of customary count-house dinners for adventurers and mine management when the accounts were presented. Miners also received their pay from here.

To find out more about nearby Botallack settlement click here.

Botallack Mine Count-house.

 

 
News & Press
WHS Newsletter Autumn 07
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© Cornwall & Scilly Historic Environment Service 2008