Big Pit National Coal Museum

This is one of the few mining museums where visitors can descend in the pit cage and visit the places where generations of coal miners worked. Visitors travel 100 metres underground and then, escorted by a real miner, they follow a 700metre route, each wearing a helmet and lamp weighing 5 kilos.

The Mining Galleries above ground then transport you forward to a modern mine, with plenty of crashes, bangs and flashes to excite everybody.

Many of the surface exhibitions and displays are housed in the original colliery buildings.

A range of educational resources are available for all age groups with the underground tour being at the heart of most visits (children must be 1 metre tall).