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Wheal Coates
Dramatic ruins on cliffs carpeted with heather and gorse.
Wheal Coates, Beacon Drive, St Agnes, Cornwall, TR5 0NT
Opening times for 30 November 2023
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Ticket type Gift aid Standard whole day parking £8.00 Become a member and discover more than 500 places
Car park
Dogs
Please keep dogs under close control
Uneven and undulating ground - steep in places. Poor mobile signal. Designated Blue Badge parking. Assistance dogs welcome.
Steps/uneven terrain
Steep and uneven paths in many places towards the cliff and Towan Roath engine house. More level paths nearer the parking area
By road
From A30, at Chiverton Cross roundabout, take B3277 for St Agnes. At roundabout, at the entrance to St Agnes village, turn left and follow brown tourist signs past the beacon for Wheal Coates.
Parking: Parking charges apply; NT members free.
Sat Nav: TR5 0NT is the nearest postcode but covers a wide area so please follow the road around Beacon Drive, looking out for the National Trust sign at the entrance to the car park. Wheal Coates: OS SW703500, (50.305370, -5.227557).
On foot
On South West Coast Path and good network of paths from St Agnes village. Approx. 30 minutes’ walk from the village around Beacon Drive to Wheal Coates.
By bus
Services 87 and T2 Perranporth, Truro and Redruth to St Agnes village. See www.travelinesw.com for up to date timetables and journey planning.
Planning your visit
Article
Visiting Wheal Coates with your dog
Find out where you can take your dog when visiting Wheal Coates on the Cornish coast, and what to do to help look after other visitors and local wildlife.
Highlights
Engine house
Towanroath mining ruins and cliff top heathland.
Tubby's Head
The low promontory is a scheduled ancient monument. Look for the bank-and-ditch ramparts and see evidence of mine workings including the nineteenth-century Wheal Bungay.
Spotlight events
Join local historian and story-teller Roger Radcliffe and National Trust rangers for a series of guided walk around the St Agnes area on selected dates this summer.
St Agnes guided walks 2023
Back again for another year of tales and legend as we walk the coastal paths around Wheal Coates and St Agnes.
Top trails
Trail
Wheal Coates tin mining walk
Explore the remnants of Wheal Coates's tin mining history, while taking in beautiful views of the Atlantic, on this short circular coastal walk.
About Wheal Coates
Wheal Coates qualifies as a Cornish icon with some of the most photographed mine buildings in the country.
Clinging to the cliff edge along from St Agnes Head and just up from Chapel Porth beach, take your time to amble around the remains of the Towanroath engine house and imagine what it would have been like to work here.
Come here in the evening on a clear day and you'll be rewarded by spectacular sunsets. Stay after dark for a good view of the stars up above.
History
Article
History of Wheal Coates
Discover the history of this dramatic industrial landscape and find out what life was like for the men, women and children who worked in the mines which cling to the Cornish coast
Support us
Volunteer with us
Search for live volunteering opportunities, or register your interest with Wheal Coates.