Heritage tourism commonly involves displays designed to represent and commemorate a valued cultural past. Our particular focus in this paper is mining heritage, and how it has been developed in Wales and Cornwall to reflect their rather different, but culturally and nationally defining, industrial histories. From some historical and critical perspectives, heritage is still a controversial concept involving simulation and commercialisation, which is often perceived as inauthentic. Yet heritage sites like Geevor in Cornwall and Big Pit in Wales, our two empirical foci, are promoted largely in terms of their authentic value. Visitors can 'experience the past', e.g. by going underground, being guided by 'real miners' and engaging with material artefacts of mining, not merely observe it. We draw on recent critical perspectives that move beyond essentialising conceptions of (in)authenticity, to analyse the competing claims to authenticity that we see in the promotional and interpretive discourses of mining heritage. We argue that, at the two sites, such discourses are organised within four frames, which we refer to as material, cultural, performative and recreational. Each frame defines a social dimension in which authenticity can be experienced. Together, the four frames provide a productive means of discursively managing the competing priorities that lie at the heart of heritage tourism.Mewn twristiaeth treftadaeth defnyddir yn fynych arddangosion a luniwyd i gynrychioli a choff au gorffennol diwylliannol a drysorir. Ar dreftadaeth mwyngloddio yr ydym yn canolbwyntio'n benodol yn y papur hwn, a'r modd y datblygodd yng Nghymru ac yng Nghernyw i adlewyrchu hanes diwydiannol y ddwy ardal, hanesion eithaf annhebyg, ond rhai sy'n diffinio diwylliant a chenedligrwydd y ddwy ardal. O rai safbwyntiau hanesyddol a beirniadol, mae treftadaeth yn parhau'n gysyniad dadleuol, un sy'n ymwneud ag efelychu a masnacheiddio a ystyrir yn fynych yn anawthentig. Ac eto, caiff safleoedd treftadaeth fel Geevor yng Nghernyw a'r Pwll Mawr yng Nghymru, ein dau ffocws empirig, eu hyrwyddo i raddau helaeth o safbwynt eu gwerth awthentig. Gall ymwelwyr 'fyw'r gorffennol', e.e. drwy fynd o dan y ddaear, cael eu harwain gan 'fwyngloddwyr go iawn' a thrin a thrafod arteffactau materol mwyngloddio, nid dim ond edrych arnyn nhw. Rydym yn tynnu ar Journal of Sociolinguistics 18/4, 2014: 495-517
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