About the Museum

Welcome to National Mining Museum Scotland, a 5 Star visitor attraction and winner of the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions “Best Visitor Experience” Award in 2009 and 2013.

The museum provides a great day out for all ages! We’re based at one of the finest surviving examples of a Victorian colliery in Europe, the Lady Victoria Colliery at Newtongrange, just nine miles south of Edinburgh. Visitors to the museum will marvel at the sheer size of the place, be astounded by the engineering brilliance behind all the machinery and retrace the footsteps and struggles of the thousands of miners and their families before them.  

What you will see during your visit:  

Story of Coal Exhibition

Your experience begins with coal’s creation in the Carboniferous period 360 million years ago and follows human efforts to extract in from the earth from the 13th century to modern times.

A Race Apart

Find out exactly with life was like, at home and at work, for the miners and their families in Scotland’s mining communities.  Includes Victorian dress up!

Winding Engine

See Scotland’s largest winding engine is action.  This winding engine hauled men and coal up and down the pit shaft for nearly 90 years and is still in working order.

Pithead Tour

Take a tour of the pithead and experience the atmosphere and noise of a working pit with the personal insights and anecdotes of our guides, all of whom are ex miners or try our multi-media self-guided tour for a fascinating look behind the scenes with amazing archive footage.

Big Stuff – Massive Mining Machinery Tour
Guided Tours on Wednesdays and Sundays
Marvel at the 40 foot coal hearer, the massive winding engine from Francis Colliery, underground carriages, cages, locomotives and much more!

Archives, Library and Loans Service

Our reference library houses mining books, journals, trade catalogues and periodicals as well as the archive of the Lothian Coal Company.  We also have a collection of over 22,000 photographs covering the history of the Scottish collieries and their communities.  The library is open to researchers by appointment on Thursdays.  

National Mining Memorial Centre

Our memorial centre allows people to join remembrance ceremonies or observe their own private remembrance to mark the sacrifices made by so many who worked in the mining industries.  It provides and elegant secular space for all who want to remember lost family and friends, record and remember those who were lost and reflect on the extraordinary resilience of Scotland’s mining communities – a resilience which persists though the pits themselves are now gone.

National Mining Museum Scotland

National Mining Museum Scotland cares for the Lady Victoria Colliery and the national coal mining collections. The Museum’s object collection includes tools, safety equipment, lamps, models, clothing, trophies, geological specimens, banners, books, art and an extensive collection of large mining objects.