Lambshouse and Gull Point Quarries are two disused slate quarries 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 at Lambshouse Cove 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 quarries were latterly worked jointly as one site and were abandoned by the turn of the 20th century. It is likely that Lambshouse Quarry originated at the cliffs at the north of the cove while Gull Point was to the south.

Location

The quarry site cuts a deep "D" shape into the cliffs immediately due south of the Tintagel

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ba ...

building and is known as Lambshouse Cove. The near vertical cliffs around the cove are almost entirely artificial and the workihgs of drills can be seen in the rock wall.«Coastal Slate Quarries – Tintagel to Trebarwith” (1990) Adam Sharpe, CAU archaeological survey for the National Trust. ISBN 1 871162 95 5 The quarries are just south 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 just north of Dria Quarry.

Stone

The quarry provided a source of Upper Devonian slate and Lower Carboniferous slates of a greyish green colour used predominantly for roofing. A "box cave" at sea level produced a darker green slate considered to be of higher quality.

History

The quarries along this coastal stretch possibly date back to the 17th century. By 1896, Lambshouse Quarry employed 38 workers - 33 indoors and 5 outdoors. At the time, the site was operated by

Harveys of Hayle John Harvey was a Cornishman whose career started as a blacksmith and engineer at Carnhell Green near Hayle, in west Cornwall. In 1779 he established a foundry and engineering works at Hayle called Harvey & Co. By 1800 the company employed more ...

. It was still operational in 1907. According to OS maps, Gull Point was still in use in 1884 but had been abandoned by 1907.

Industrial remains

Lambshouse and Gull Point quarries have some of the best preserved remains of all the quarries along this coast. There is a cluster of three horse or donkey whims where stone was hauled up in buckets at the end of ropes. The best preserved of these which served Gull Point quarry still has its intact mechanism pit and cable tunnels. One of the most striking features of Lambshouse Quarry is the giant spoil tip cascading down the cliffs to the sea. Just to the north of this is the current

building. This originally housed the office, powerhouse and smithy for the quarry and dates back to at least 1884. The youth hostel doubled for the coastguard station in the 1981 BBC serial '' The Nightmare Man''.

References

{{reflist Quarries in Cornwall Quarries in England Tintagel