ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Botallack's mining through the memories of local residents which were revealed during walks around the site in 2008 and 2009. These oral testimonies highlight the former presence of a number of individuals who are closely associated with the site in the 1980s and 1990s. Labelled during interviews as the retired miner', the Travellers and the arsonist, explore their fragmented biographies to consider their role in constructing narratives about place within the context of differing social boundaries relating to this particular mine site. The chapter also explores how social agents interact with material culture and relics in the landscape in the process of placemaking, modern mythmaking and commemorative practice. The archaeology associated with the individuals focus on is everyday and ephemeral; yet, through remembrance, these individuals, the artwork and the camp continue to haunt Botallack's cliffs. It's through such processes that mining sites continue to reanimate past the point of mine closure.
