Best day trips from Cardiff: Big Pit National Coal Museum
Written by Karen Bryan
I visited the Big Pit National Coal Museum during the Cardiff leg of the Summer 09 UK Blogging Tour. The Museum tells the story of the coal mining industry in Wales with interactive displays and an underground tour. It’s free of charge to visit the Big Pit, so it’s a winning combination of a really interesting day out that’s easy on the pocket.
The Big Pit National Coal Museum
I thought that the 50 minute Underground Tour was the best part of the museum, as it gives a you a taste of what it must have been like to work down a mine. Our guide for the Underground Tour was excellent, he was very knowledgeable and humourous. He was always trying to get the kids in the group involved, and quite happy to answer any questions – you didn’t get the impression that he was just reciting a well practised script.
Me ready to go down the Big Pit
Despite all the warnings, I heard my hard hat banging on the low tunnel roof several times. I even felt a bit weighed down wearing the battery for my helmet light and the self rescue kit tied around my waist. We all complain about work and stress, but imagine if you were down a coal mine for 12 hour shifts six days a week, bent over doing hard physical work and breathing in coal dust.
The Big Pit is open seven days a week from 9.30 – 17:00 with underground tours running from 10.00 – 15:30. The Big Pit is part of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site which has thirteen other places of interest such as Ironworks, walking trails, a canal and St Peter’s Church.
More on European Museums
Find out about more museums in Europe on Europe a la Carte.
Europe a la Carte Summer 09 UK Blogging Tour sponsored by
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- Cardiff stop on the Summer 09 Blogging Tour
- The Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange, near Edinburgh
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- Back to Backs, Birmingham: A glimpse of life in the past
Fully agree Karen, Big Pit is a really good place to visit to experience a bit of what it was like to work in the coal mines. The underground tour lacks the noise, vibration, dust and heat of a real coal mine but it is the closest experience most people will now get. The guides are all ex-miners, I worked with a few of them at Taff Merthyr Colliery between 1993 and 1994.
I would advise visitors to experience the surface gallery. Here some more modern mining equipment is on display, some of it ex Taff Merthyr. Here you will experience some of the noise and mining banter(minus swearing). The gallery even smells like a real mine.