Botallack
Mines

Botallack

Botallack mine can be found perched delicately on the cliffs in West Penwith. An ancient monument, this long working mine is really a collection of several smaller workings which utilised at least twenty engine houses and mined from over 102 shafts.

By 1778 parts of the mine were already deep and stretching out under the seabed, where the real riches of Botallack are found, with some sections of tunnel only having four feet of rock between the sea and the miners below. Around 1802 an engine was being installed on the Carnyorth section, with the first Crown’s engine following fourteen years later.

What’s left of Carn Whim.

Through the 1830’s when tin prices dropped, the mine was kept alive under the management of Steven Harvey James. In the following decade, tin production became more and more important as it continued to expand.
Botallack’s most famous shaft, Boscowen’s Diagonal/Incline, was started in 1858 and completed in 1862. It was only a year later that the chain holding the gig bringing miners up broke, resulting in the deaths of eight men and a boy. The chain was quickly replaced and not long after the Prince and Princess of Wales were on site taking a ride down the shaft, which enjoyed a brief venture as a tourist attraction. 

Again, fluctuations in ore prices and overall low output meant the mines fortunes were mostly over. While they were able to make some ground selling off arsenic, several of the lower levels had to be abandoned and the Crown’s and Wheal Hazard sections put on hold. The emigration of miners abroad did not help the situation. To aid the arsenic sales, a new plant was built in 1875, however this didn’t stop the Carnyorth section closing the following year.

Allen’s shaft and headgear, originally sunk in 1908. The headgear dates from the 1980’s Geevor revamp of the site. 

Even during this trying time, the Wheal Cock site was still going strong and was even enlarged in 1883 while the managers were unsuccessfully trying to sell the rest of the mine. Botallack was producing poor quality tin and an upgrade of the entire dressing floor was much needed. In 1895 an underground dam in Wheal Cock collapsed, allowing water from other parts of the mine to flood the richer parts, an influx of water that the pumping engines couldn’t cope with. Large sections of the workings were sold off.

Probably the most famous engine houses in the world: the 36″ Crown’s pumping engine and 24″ Pearce’s Whim. 

In 1906 a new company under the name Cornish Consolidated Tin Mines Ltd bought Botallack, Carnyorth and Buzza with the aim of reopening. A large number of surface buildings were erected, including a brand new dressing plant, offices and even rooms for Penzance School of Mines. One condition of this new venture was the sinking of Allen’s shaft; however it was located inland, away from the profitable ore under the seabed. It was abandoned again in 1914.

The sad remains of Wheal Hazard whim. 

1980 saw once last try at the site, under Geevor Mine management. Allen’s shaft was revamped and the underground workings were extended, but this only lasted until 1985 when tin prices crashed again. 

Following this, the Carn Brea Mining Society formed the Botallack Trust which set about consolidating the engine houses and dressing floors as they appear today.

All that’s left of the Wheal Cock section: Engine shaft, the concrete whim remains and Skip shaft. 

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Extensive remains of the 20th century dressing floor, including large labyrinth, calciner, buddles and utility buildings. 

Narrow shaft with its metal grid. This was pumped by a stamps engine just up the path. 

Botallack is made up of a number of smaller sets, including:
Wheal Hazard, Wheal Tolvan, Wheal Button, Wheal Loor, Cotton Wrath, Wheal Sampson, Wheal Chase, Grylls Bunny, Wheal Cock, Wheal Hen, Wheal Buzza, Wheal Chicken, Carnyorth and Ninevah.