South Caradon Mine

Overview

South Caradon, on the slopes of Caradon Hill above St Cleer, went from a group of miners who couldn't raise capital in London to one of the largest copper mines in the world within a few years of striking its main lode in 1836 — and left behind what is now one of the largest collections of surviving engine house remains in Cornwall.

History

A group of miners acquired the South Caradon site in 1833 but struggled for three years to raise capital before finally striking a rich copper lode in 1836. Their shares, once worth almost nothing, rose to around £2,000 apiece — equivalent to roughly a quarter of a million pounds today — and the discovery triggered a mining boom across the wider Caradon and Liskeard district that lasted until the 1890s. South Caradon worked from 1837 to 1885, and over that half-century its copper output ranked third in the whole of Cornwall; within a few years of opening it had become one of the largest copper mines anywhere in the world, employing thousands of men at the district's peak in the 1840s. Kittow's Shaft, at the eastern end of the sett, housed a man-engine for raising and lowering miners; Holman's and Rules' shafts, towards the centre of the workings, retain substantial engine houses and tips. The Liskeard and Caradon Railway was built specifically to carry the mine's ore down to the port of Looe for shipment.

Geology

The mine worked copper lodes within the Cornubian orefield of east Cornwall, the same hydrothermal, granite-related mineralisation worked across the county's other major copper and tin districts.

Geological setting: Hydrothermal Deposits (well documented example), Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

The sett was worked from numerous shafts across Caradon Hill, including Kittow's Shaft, which housed a man-engine, and the engine house at Holman's Shaft and at Rules' Shaft, where substantial waste tips also survive; an 1860s pumping engine house on the site, of a rare Sims compound design, still stands to its full height.

Closure

The main working closed in 1885 as the district's copper boom subsided; limited further activity continued in the district into the 1890s.

What remains

Engine houses, chimney stacks and thousands of tonnes of waste rock tips encircle Caradon Hill, along with the trackbed of the Liskeard and Caradon Railway, built to link the mines to the port of Looe; the site holds one of the largest collections of surviving Cornish engine houses anywhere.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Over its fifty-year working life South Caradon's copper output ranked third in the whole of Cornwall, and within a few years of opening it had become one of the largest copper mines anywhere in the world. ^1,2
• Kittow's Shaft housed a man-engine for raising and lowering miners; an 1860s pumping engine house on the site, of a rare Sims compound design, survives to its full height. ^1,2

Images

Sources

1. (primary) South Caradon 19th century copper mine, St. Cleer — Historic England (Scheduled Monument record)
2. (secondary) Caradon Mine, Cornwall — Cornwall Calling
3. (primary) South Caradon New Kittow's Mine Plan (BGS Mine Plans Catalogue) — British Geological Survey / The Coal Authority

Record created: 22 August 2026 · Last researched: 22 August 2026