Gillow State Quarry is a small, disused slate quarry between
Tintagel
Tintagel () or Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surroundin ...
and
Trebarwith on the north coast of
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
,
South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...
. The quarry was abandoned by the turn of the 20th century.
Location
The quarry site is at the foot of a steep coastal slope just north of
St Materiana's Church in Tintagel and just to the west of the
South West Coast Path
The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises a ...
. The quarry workings extend from sea level around 40m to the top of the cliff. The terracing where the slate has been worked can still be seen, as well as some platforms for
whims and the remains of what might have been tool sheds.
[«Coastal Slate Quarries – Tintagel to Trebarwith” (1990) Adam Sharpe, CAU archaeological survey for the National Trust. ISBN 1 871162 95 5] Gillow Quarry is just north of
Long Grass Quarry
Long Grass Quarry (also known as Cliff Quarry) is a small, disused slate quarry between Tintagel and Trebarwith on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England, which was worked up until 1937. It was the last of the slate quarries on this st ...
and is the northernmost of the quarries that lie between Tintagel and Trebarwith.
Stone
The quarry provided a source of
Upper Devonian slate and
Lower Carboniferous slates of a greyish green colour used predominantly for roofing.
History
The quarry possibly dates back to the 17th century.
[https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/media/ybdlziqy/evidence-report-the-building-stones-of-cornwall-the-identification-of-heritage-quarries.pdf p162] It was still operational in 1884 but by 1896 it was no longer listed on OS maps. The 1907 OS map lists the quarry as "disused".
[
]
References
{{reflist
Quarries in Cornwall
Quarries in England
Tintagel