The Crown Mines at Botallack are two engine houses perched on the cliff face above the sea, the most dramatic survivors of the Cornish mining landscape that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The buildings — the Crowns Stamps Engine House and the Crowns Whim Engine House — stand on a narrow ledge between the cliff face and the water, their foundations set directly on the rock. They are reached by a short steep path from the Botallack National Trust car park.
The view from the clifftop above is one of the finest in Cornwall, taking in the engine houses below against the sea and the mine waste tips along the coast. Botallack Mine worked tin and copper from the 18th century until 1914, and at its peak employed several hundred miners. The surrounding landscape of waste tips, mine shafts (fenced), and ruined engine houses extends north to Levant and south toward St Just, making this the most concentrated industrial heritage walk in the area. Allow at least an hour for a thorough visit.