Visiting Our Cornish Mining Heritage

The weather was glorious when we awoke, and we did not want the day to pass without doing something nice, for as little money as possible.

As we have 12 month passes for the National Trust, I checked out their website for some ideas, and having decided on Levant Mine at St Just, not far from the Lizard, and Cape Cornwall, we packed up a picnic and piled into the MX-5.

The lid down and Fred attached to the seat belt with his car harness on Paul's lap, we headed off down country with the sun beating down on us.

Yes, I did drive all the way! I was feeling very brave today! LOL!

We arrived and were advised that the whole of the mining heritage site was dog friendly and that Fred was welcome anywhere we wanted to go.... so many new sniffs for him, he was in his element!

The first building took us into a room with a mine shaft that went down, and down, and down....

the next room was a video DVD room with info on the site and its full history, as the film was already running, we took advantage of a huge table outside, and ate out picnic... we could go in once the film restarted.... unfortunately we had finished our tiger baps, fruit and crisps and the film was still playing, so we carried on to the next building with the intention of coming back later.

This really is the most breath taking place. The sun was shining and the sky and sea the most glorious blues, but we could imagine that the treacherous rocks and weather renowned for in this part of the world would make this quite an open and hostile environment in the winter time.

Having wandered around the main building, we headed out away from the steam engine and primary site, and walked back up the coast path, in the direction of the Pendeen Lighthouse, as there were more outbuilding to be looked at, and arsenic piles/slag heaps to be inspected.... all by products of the mining that took place here.

As we came to the last of the out building and relics, we could see the Geevor mine in the distance, and as it was only about a quarter of a mile away, decided to walk up to it and get a drink in their cafe before heading back to the final building at Levant.

By the time we had climbed (or crawled and puffed in my case) up the hill towards Geevor and this water wheel, both Fred and I were ready to collapse from heat exhaustion and dehydration!

Fred downed a complete bowl of his water, that thankfully we had left in the picnic bag that Paul was carrying.

I was able to sit at a picnic table in front of the above buildings, and down a large glass of fizzy pop, whilst Paul was very grown up with his cup of coffee..... Coffee in heat like this!!!!

The walk back from Geevor to Levant was a little easier, as it took a slightly higher coast path, that wasn't so hilly.

It bought us out just by the area where the car parks were, and we were able to then access the underground mine that was open to visitors.

It was wonderfully cool inside the granite walls, and as we followed the path down the tunnel, Fred panted away, appreciating the drop in temperature.

The little cubicles in the wall that you can see, were to house the miners helmets!

When we had finished looked around, we climbed back into the '5' and drove over the Pendeen Lighthouse, that we had been able to see from the mines.

We parked up and walked down to the Lighthouse, and, having set the camera on auto timer, and propped in precariously on a fence post, I managed to get a family picture of our day out.

Before heading back home, we bought an obligatory ice cream with chocolate flake and relaxed whilst taking in the beautiful view.

What a fantastic day! The journey home was just as good, this time with Paul driving, and we did the coast road all the way home, coming through St Ives, Carbis Bay, and Hayle before driving our favourite coast road from Hayle to Portreath.

We finished the day off by raiding out little red purse, or kitty as we like to call her, for some entertainment funds.

The day was finished off with a meal at the Portreath Arms, the only part of the day that cost us any money, other than the £2.50 for the ice cream, earlier in the afternoon.

Fantastic!