A clifftop tin mine near St Just where the old pumping engine still turns under steam, above workings that ran out beneath the sea
Open to visitorsa National Trust place — check opening times and admission before you go
The pull here is the beam engine, built around 1840 by Harvey’s of Hayle and now the only one in Cornwall still worked by steam on the spot it was made for. It pumped water from shafts that reached out under the Atlantic, part of a mine where men cut tin from rock beneath the sea floor. That reach came at a cost. In 1919 the man engine that carried miners up and down the main shaft failed at the end of a shift, and thirty-one men were killed; the mine never fully recovered and closed in 1930. It is now part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, run by the National Trust with admission and set hours. The engine is put into steam only on certain days, so it is worth checking before you make the trip. Geevor Tin Mine sits just along the cliff and Botallack Mine a little to the south, its ruined engine houses perched almost on the waterline. The South West Coast Path runs past the door if you would rather arrive on foot.
