Cliffs of Botallack

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View across the rocky cliffs and bay that they form at Botallack near St Just. If it looks familiar to some of you it might be because the mines here were used in filming the recent series of Poldark. Wheal Owles (the engine house in the photo) was used as Wheal Leisure in the TV series.

The mines you see here not only went deep under the ground but out under the sea. In fact Wheal Owles was the scene of an horrific mining accident when a group of miners mistakenly broke through into an old, flooded shaft which sent water rushing into the mine.

The landscape around here is truly unique; the dramatic cliffs which jut out into the often tempestuous Atlantic Ocean are dotted with various mine workings of all shapes and sizes. These days it is difficult to imagine that for hundreds of local people this was once a place of work.

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