Exploring Wheal Kitty

I’ve been meaning to locate Wheal Kitty for some time. As usual, when I do, it’s by accident, and I’m not sure I could easily find my way back there.

Wheal Kitty is a mining complex just outside of St Agnes. I’d noticed the odd engine house around St Agnes, including the iconic Wheal Coates, but it wasn’t until a recent walk from St Agnes to Perranporth, and now Wheal Kitty, that the immensity of the mining operation in the area comes into focus. It’s certainly a dramatic area to rival Botallack, both of them situated along stunning coastal cliff tops.

St Agnes grew up around the mines, and its shops, houses and public builidings such as the Miners and Mechanics Institute were all built to serve the tin mining community, which flourished from the 1830s to the 1870s.

The remains of Wheal Kitty, which was functioning until 1930, are perched on cliffs overlooking Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes. At the top, some of the mining buildings, including an engine house, were purchased by the council and turned into a pleasant little business park, called Wheal Kitty Workshops, with offices, a branch of Finisterre and headquarters for Surfers Against Sewage.

However, this obviously held no interest for me at all, and I only emerged into the business park after battling brambles and climbing crumbling walls. I’d approached from the coast, having glimpsed a chimney in the distance. Then climbed over some gravel hillocks and waded through old brambles to stumble into what appeared to be an ancient miner’s skatepark: there was graffiti, concrete posts, ramps, steps and walls, all perfect for some skateboarding.