The Bottalack mines in Cornwall was one of the most surprising places I had been when I went to Cornwall in autumn late last year. Originally I wanted to go to the mines because they had been featured quite a bit in Poldark, one of my favourite period dramas. So I was only really expecting two mine ruins in the middle of a field. However, like I said I was pleasantly surprised with what we discovered there.

You cannot explore inside majority of the mine towers without quite a bit of effort. It can be quite dangerous as there is the potential for some extremely nasty falls from rather high heights. If you want to explore inside the ruins themselves, make sure you go with someone else and only go in bright, dry weather.

The view from the mines to the sea is extremely beautiful and especially stunning if you go on a sunny day. You can see all up and down the northern Cornish coastline. And of course, the site makes for some excellent photographs.

I found the site to be very quiet and peaceful. You could easily sit inside the mine buildings for hours without anyone disturbing you. Sitting against the cold stone, I enjoyed listening to the small birds flitting around the ruin and the calming song of the ocean waves down below.

When we arrived at the mines we saw that the site was owned by the National Trust. Usually National Trust sites are areas of natural beauty or stately homes so I was quite surprised to find out that they did in fact own the site. Nonetheless the staff at the cafe/information centre were very knowledgeable about the site and provided my husband and I a map of the site as well as a few recommended walks nearby to see the best of what the site has to offer.

We decided to walk up to the nearest structure by the information centre which was only around a 5 minute walk. However, if you’re planning on doing any of the long walks around the site I would advise you invest in some sturdy walking boots or hardy wellies. The footpaths are basically non-existent and can be uneven, rocky and steep in some places.

The first structure we saw up close was what the map described as “the labyrinth”. The labyrinth is basically a extremely tall narrow building with a long chimney and various passages below it leading up to the chimney. Apparently this is where the miners would harvest deadly arsenic which was a by product of tin mining - a very common substance found in the mines all over Cornwall.

One of my favourite walks on the site was down to the two mine buildings that were teetering in the middle of the cliff face. Although it was quite a walk to get down there - around 20 minuets or so from the car park, it was definitely worth it. The views from the bottom were beautiful and you could see all the way back up to the rest of the site which offered a nice change of perspective.

My husband and I stayed down here for a little while and managed to step foot inside the ruins. Again, I would only suggest you do this on sunny dry day. I could imagine going down to this part of the site on a stormy day would result in getting sprayed by the sea and perhaps a few falls down the sloped walk.

Climbing back up from this area wasn’t so taxing, however if you don’t do well with uneven ground and don’t have much endurance for walking I wouldn’t recommend it.