In the centre of Cornwall lies a landscape shaped by invention, resilience, and world-changing industry. Camborne and Redruth, once proudly known as the Capital of Cornish Mining, remain places where the mining story is written into every hill, street, and engine house. It is a region where heritage still echoes in the architecture, the celebrations, the culture, and the landscape itself.
Today, Camborne and Redruth offer visitors a vibrant blend of industrial remains, creative regeneration, museums, trails, and community life. This is one of the most atmospheric and historically significant parts of Cornwall—perfect for anyone wanting to walk in the footsteps of miners, mineworkers and innovators whose work resonated across the world.
Redruth: A Town Forged in the Mining Boom
Redruth grew rapidly during the industrial era, when it became a centre of the global copper industry. Mines nearby produced extraordinary wealth, attracting engineers, miners, traders, and adventurers. The town’s streets and buildings reflect this past: grand façades from mining prosperity stand alongside creative new spaces and community enterprises.
One of the highlights of modern Redruth is the Redruth Buttermarket, beautifully reimagined as a lively centre of local food, craft, culture, and small businesses. Its buzzing atmosphere embodies the town’s ongoing revival—honouring its past while embracing its future.
Overlooking the entire landscape is Carn Brea, a landmark dotted with prehistoric remains, a hilltop castle, and a towering monument. Climb its slopes and you’ll be rewarded with sweeping views across the mining district — engine houses, chimney stacks, old tramways, and rolling moorland stretching toward the sea.
Camborne: Innovation, Global Influence, and Engineering Genius
A short journey west brings you to Camborne, a town renowned for its engineering brilliance and mining heritage. In the 19th century, Camborne was home to some of the deepest and most productive tin mines on the planet. The drive to extract ore from extraordinary depths fuelled a wave of innovation and technological breakthroughs.
At the centre of this story is the region’s most famous son: Richard Trevithick. His pioneering high-pressure steam technology transformed industry worldwide and laid the groundwork for modern locomotives. Every spring, the town celebrates his legacy with Trevithick Day — a vibrant festival filled with steam engines, music, heritage displays, markets, and community pride.
Camborne’s engineering tradition continued through the creation of the Camborne School of Mines, an institution that earned a global reputation for excellence. Its students and graduates travelled the world, influencing mining techniques, geology, and engineering in distant continents. Renowned for engineering brilliance, the Camborne foundries became a hub of innovation that shaped the region’s mining achievements and wider influence overseas, driving technological advances that echoed far beyond Cornwall
A Region Rich with Mining Heritage Sites
Across Camborne and Redruth, the industrial past is never far away. The area is filled with extraordinary heritage sites that help tell the full story of Cornish mining.
Located in Redruth, Kresen Kernow is impressive archive and cultural centre is housed in the restored Redruth Brewery. Today is the home of an extensive collection of photographs, books, manuscripts, maps, and stories filling a beautifully designed space.
One of Cornwall’s best-preserved mining sites, King Edward Mine near Camborne lets visitors step directly into the industrial world. Its working machinery, restored buildings, and engaging museum exhibits reveal exactly how ore was processed and how miners worked.
The National Trust’s East Pool Mine showcases the power of Cornish engineering with its towering machinery and engine houses. It’s a great place to visit to understand the incredible scale of mining in this district.
Close by and up on the north coast, the picturesque Portreath harbour once served as the key shipping point for the Camborne and Redruth mines. Ores were transported to the harbour via tramways and later rail, before being exported across the world. Today, its beaches and breakwaters offer beautiful coastal walks—but its industrial heritage is still visible.
Walk in the Footsteps of the Past: The Mining Trails
The landscape around Camborne and Redruth is home to the mining trails network, ideal for walkers and cyclists who want to explore the countryside at their own pace. Following former tramroads, mineral railways, and miners’ footpaths, these trails reveal engine houses perched on hillsides, mine shafts nestled in gorse, and sweeping views across Cornwall’s industrial heartland.
It is impossible to walk here without feeling connected to the generations of miners, engineers, and families who shaped this landscape.
Discover Camborne & Redruth by Train
Both towns are well connected by the Cornish rail network. As you approach Camborne and Redruth by rail, you travel straight into the mining heartland, passing old mineral lines, engine houses, and the contours of a landscape shaped by centuries of innovation. Let the scenery unfold outside the window before you step directly into the places where history was made.