On the tin mine trail along a rugged coastline
The remains of Cornwall’s tin mining prowess can be discovered on a wild coastal walk
APAIR OF GANNETS cruise steadily upwards over long ribbons of foam towards the headland at Kenidjack, where the sea surges halfway up the cliff, then drains back like quicksilver. The birds swoop inland to glide over an iron age castle, Neolithic remains and countless ruined engine houses and disused mines before they bank right, flying over fields scattered with wild flowers and disappearing over the horizon.
This is the tin coast in West Cornwall: a dramatic landscape that reflects the boom times of copper, tin and arsenic production. In 2006, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, putting Cornish mining on a par with international treasures such as the Taj Mahal and serving as a reminder that this coastline was not only an integral cog in the wheel of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, but also the world. In a narrow sense, the tin coast refers to an approximately 5-mile stretch of coastline between Pendeen Lighthouse and Cape Cornwall, and includes the valleys just to the south. A 3-mile ‘out and back’ walk along this rocky peninsula offers an experience of history spanning millennia.
Levant Mine
Starting at the car park in Levant, 4 miles from Land’s End, a broad, surfaced track leads straight to one of the area’s most interesting sites, the former Levant Mine, now owned by the National Trust. Dramatically sited on the edge of a 200ft (61m) cliff, the site encapsulates the essence of the Cornish coastal mining industry. A tour of the site is powerfully evocative: the rusted tramway; the ruined walls, fireplace and segments of coloured tiled floor that mark the site of what was once the account house or ‘count house’; the remains of the miners’ dry, where they changed into their underground clothes, which descends via a spiral staircase to a tunnel and the ‘man engine’ shaft.
Like most Cornish mines, Levant had deep tunnels that went far below the surface. Each day, miners climbed down a shaft to start work. At the end of the day, they had to climb back up the ladders to go home. In 1857, a ‘man engine’ was installed that took miners into the deepest parts of the mine and out again, using a system of moving wooden platforms. Even with the engine, it still took approximately half an hour to travel from the top of the mine to the very bottom. On 20 October 1919, a link connecting two parts of the man engine broke, sending men, timbers and platforms hurtling down the shaft. At the time, approximately 130 men had been on their way to the surface: the rescue effort took five days. The accident killed 31 miners and injured many others, and it marked the beginning of the end of the mine, which closed in 1930.