Restormel Royal Iron Mine

Lostwithiel, Cornwall, England, UK

Restormel Royal Iron Mine is a former iron mine which closed in 1883. It was formerly known as Trinity Mine.

Trinity Mine seems to have opened sometime in the 1790s, when the collector Philip Rashleigh obtained mineral specimens from the locale.

A tramway was built in 1836 which connected the mine to the quays at Lostwithiel.

In 1846 it was visited by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and thereafter renamed ‘Restormel Royal Iron Mine’.

Here her Majesty was bold enough to explore the iron mines. “You go in on a level,” she writes.

“Albert and I got into one of the trucks and we were dragged in by the miners, Mr. Taylor” (mineral agent to the Duchy) “walking behind us. The miners wore a curious woollen dress with a cap, and they generally have a candlestick in front of the cap.

This time candlesticks were stuck along the sides of the mine, and those who did not drag or push carried lights. The gentlemen wore miners’ hats. There was no room to pass between the trucks and the rock, and only just room enough to hold up one’s head, and not always that.

It had a most curious effect, and there was something unearthly about this lit-up cavern-like place. We got out and scrambled a little way to see the veins of ore, and Albert knocked off some pieces.”

On the way back they visited Lostwithiel; and then they returned to Osborne, vastly delighted and refreshed by their tour.

The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 1 of 4

Robert Wilson and Edmund Ollier

It was worked over several levels and used horses to draw out the ore – unusual in Cornwall. The mines production was said to be 128000 tons of ore between 1855-1883, a small amount of Britains total iron mined, despite its royal title.

Restormel Royal Iron Mine eventually closed in 1883.

 

Mindat lists 15 mineral species from the site – due to the length of time it has been closed and abandoned, specimens are uncommon from this site and tend to come from older collections or lucky finds by landowners doing construction in the area.

 

Further reading

 

 

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