Land’s End: Landscapes and Mining at the Tip of England

Abstract

The region around Land’s End, Cornwall, forms the southwesternmost tip of England and shows a range of distinctive upland and coastal landscapes that reflect the effects of physical and chemical weathering of granite over long geological time periods. Hydrothermal weathering of the Land’s End granite resulted in the concentration of metal-rich ores in surrounding country rocks, and provided the conditions under which the tin mining industry developed during the seventeenth century. During the Pleistocene, the region was strongly affected by periglacial processes, and these helped shape the weathered granite summits (tors) found in upland areas. Unconsolidated weathered products have accumulated over bedrock surfaces, in particular in coastal lowlands. Stratigraphic evidence from key coastal sites provides a record of late Pleistocene environmental change, in which enhanced slope sediment supply by solifluction took place during more humid periods. In combination, late Pleistocene geomorphic processes and human exploitation of mineral deposits have shaped both the physical and human environments of the Land’s End region, giving west Cornwall its distinctive character and identity.