REPORT: Wheal Leder Mine

St Ives, Cornwall | Derelict tin and copper mine. Site open for tourism, mine itself fenced off by the Heritage. Still accessible.

Follow the Southwest coastal path up from Porthmeor Beach and you'll find the old site of Wheal Leder. Now a Heritage-owned visitor attraction, explorers could head up there with the tourists for a nice day out...

...Alternatively, not that I'm encouraging bad behaviour, admins... you could schneak in... and access the mine's tunnels via the main shaft. (No, I'm not joking.)

Now, of course, this means trespassing on private land, which I certainly do not encourage... especially if explorers were interested in witnessing some frankly spectacular sights down in its depths, such as incredible copper staining or massive caverns filled with old mining equipment...

...Not to mention that abseiling down to around 80m is pretty dangerous...

ANYWAY. We did it. We headed up there the other evening and used the railings to secure our ropes. There's usually a security guard on duty, but from a couple of evening scouting walks we did in the run-up, he's usually alone. You can also bypass him by dodging between the old structures if you need to. He tends not to amble over to the shaft itself... at least, he didn't whilst we were getting ready for the drop. Maybe he's got a fear of heights lol.

There's a ledge about 6ft down where you can set up. From there, abseil any further than 80m and you'll meet the flooded parts of the mine. Remember, Wheal Leder's on a cliff edge, so don't mess about with it. Be careful.

We got down there and headed through the only accessible tunnel. It's quite a trek from there — we've posted a YT video if you want a detailed guide. Be warned: there are a lot of tight spaces and gaps we had to shimmy through. You'll eventually get to a space where things open up a bit and you can breathe for a sec.

We climbed up through a gap to get to the right level — beware of the tracks up there. Dunno what did that or how it happened... please don't cut yourselves on it. A little further from there and we reached the main cavern, which is awesome. Well worth seeing. Just be aware that there's a massive slit into the abyss at the far end — watch out for that.

Enjoy the photos. They're of varying quality due to the light, sorry! If you're planning to do this trip yourself, please take a friend or two and be careful. It's certainly not for the faint-hearted...