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We have never visited the Copper Mine on Tortola. Is it worth a view? Is there a good place to moor?

Interesting.....I've never heard of a copper mine on Tortola....will be interested to see the responses. There is one on Virgin Gorda and I wouldn't go there by boat....we drive there. For me, it is worth the drive and a stop at the Mine Shaft Cafe'

The Copper Mine on Virgin Gorda is on the windward side of the island and can't be done by boat. It's pretty interesting if you've never been.

The Copper Mine on Virgin Gorda is very similar to those in Cornwall, England. Indeed it was built by the same people. Very fascinating to see how it was constructed, and bear in mind that much of the work was done in tunnels way out to sea. Nowhere to moor on this side of the island, but well worth a stop if you hire a car: a "should do" on VG anyway. The Mine Shaft Cafe has some interesting photos of England at the time these mines were in operation.

Thanks everyone. We'll give it a try.

Best to stop at Leverick and rent a car to explore. The mine site is definitely worth the visit. In the tailings you can still find bits of blue/green malachite and silver molybdenite.

I second Glenn's suggestion of a car rental - it's a great way to see a lot on the same day. If you stay at Leverick, they can arrange a rental to be brought there for you.

It is only about 3 miles from Spanish Town if you want to walk or run there. There is also a geocache among the ruins

Enjoy!

And on the current Masterpiece Classic - Poldark, set in Cornwall, England....the mine ruin looks very much like the ruin on VG - that was my daughter's first comment when she saw it on the TV. And I believe the miners on VG came from Cornwall?

Yes. Cornwall was known for its hard rock miners. It took a special kind of miner to crawl half a mile under the ocean in a 4' diameter tunnel lit with candles. The rock formation just off shore shows the direction of the seams that the copper ore formed in. The mine tunnels followed those seams out under the ocean.

Certainly did. See my earlier post. There are many mines like the VG one in Cornwall and reputedly, every mine in the world had/has a Cornishman at the bottom of it. So great were their mining skills. PS. My husband is Cornish and I lived there for over 20 years. A beautiful area.

BTW, the remains of the 40" cylinder walking beam engine are on the beach just north of the mine. It was the first high pressure steam engine build by Perran Foundry of Cornwall.

The 31 Cornish miners did the engineering and worked the mine faces. 140 Virgin Gordans did the hauling and lifting. There is a saying that "the Cornishmen 'knew better than anyone how to break rock, how to timber bad ground, and how to make the other fellow shovel it, tram it and hoist it.'"

Thanks for that, Glenn. Very interesting. We've been to VG several times but have not taken this site in. Will do it this time.

Actually, it's only about two miles from the yacht harbor, and it's really not a bad walk, if you're in the mood. You pass by a local restaurant with incredible food (sorry, forgot the name! Evan?), and get a peek at Morgan Freeman's house and studio (I guess, now it's his ex-wife's) on the way. Many vistas. It's a bit hot, so plan accordingly.

YachtReprise - The actual distance is around 2.4 miles if you know the way When I run I usually end up off the normal route and my GPS keeps track of the mileage. But for hikers I always tell them the distance is a little more since it seems longer to them with the hills and all. I also advise to hike very early in the morning before the sun takes its' toll!

Copper Mine at sunrise. Mostly wanted to see if I could post a photo.

Awesome! It will be on my to do list for next trip

We're Copper Mine fans. Very cool setting, interesting history and we've never seen it crowded. I think the walk from town would be a bit dodgy - hot, exposed and uncomfortably close traffic.

The Lifeworks International program usually brings their kids in their service camp program by the Copper Mine park for a cleanup day. Looks like the two boats in their first session came by recently. A couple of dozen teenagers can clean up a beach pretty fast. The eastern exposure here collects a lot of wind blown trash from the Atlantic. My daughter was in the program last summer and she said they were filling a dozen contractor bags in a few hours with mostly plastic items. Clean beach, until the wind blows again.

http://lifeworks-international.com/wp/blogs/category/lwbvi1-boat1/page/3/

Cheers, RickG