South Caradon Mine
A trial excavation via an adit (horizontal tunnel) on Caradon hill initially proved unpromising and so the South Caradon mining sett was bought and sold a number of times, sometimes for as little as a guinea. In 1833 it was acquired by a group of miners who failed to raise capital in London to develop it but nevertheless persevered for three years until they struck the main copper lode. Almost overnight their shares rose in value to £2000 (equivalent to a quarter of a million pounds in 2018) and over the subsequent decades they became very wealthy indeed. By the 1840s, there were nearly 4000 miners working in the district and South Caradon became the largest copper mine in the UK.
On walks
- Caradon Hill to Trethevy Quoit (5 mile walk)
- Minions and Caradon Hill (5 mile walk)
Get the iWalkCornwall app
Download the app and use it to explore the walks and to purchase a guided route.
The app will direct you to the start of the walk via satnav.
The app guides you around the walk using GPS, removing any worries about getting lost.
The walk route is described with detailed, regularly-updated, hand-written directions.
Each time there is a new direction to follow, the app will beep to remind you, and will warn you if you go off-route.
A map shows the route, where you are at all times and even which way you are facing.
Each walk is packed with information about the history and nature along the route, from over a decade of research than spans more than 3,000 topics.
Once a walk is downloaded, the app doesn't need a phone or wifi signal during the walk.
The app counts down distance to the next direction and estimates time remaining based on your personal walking speed.
We keep the directions continually updated for changes to the paths/landmarks - the price for a walk includes ongoing free updates.
