MINING HISTORY
In 2006 Cornwall's mining landscape became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The St Just mining district is the most westerly area of the World Heritage Site and features outstanding mines including Botallack, Levant and Geevor. These mines are located along the north-westerly edge of the Penwith peninsula and all had submarine development reaching out under the Atlantic for around 1.5km.
Geevor Tin Mine is the largest preserved mining site in the UK. Situated on the cliffs above the Atlantic Ocean, it was a working tin mine until 1990. Now there is a museum with mining artefacts and photographs and all the surface buildings containing the mining machinery from the mine's working days.
There is also a guided underground tour into the 19th century tunnels of Wheal Mexico Mine, rediscovered in 1995.
The Crowns engine houses are dramatically perched on the cliffs at Botallack. Because of their precarious positions they are probably the most photographed mining site in Cornwall. The National Trust owned Count House at Botallack contains information about The Crowns and other industrial sites in the area including its calciners, the finest surviving arsenic refining works in Britain.
Levant Tin Mine has the oldest working beam steam engine in Cornwall and is now owned by the National Trust. It was once famed for its underseas deposits of tin and copper, which were mined more than a mile out beneath the Atlantic.