Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life - in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire - is a VisitScotland '4 Star' visitor attraction and 'Best Working Attraction' award-winner. Summerlee's 23 acres are based around the site of the 19th Century Summerlee Ironworks, a fore-runner in the use of the innovative hot-blast iron smelting process that led Coatbridge to fame and fortune as Scotland's 'Iron Burgh'. I
t celebrates the ordinary working lives of people in Scotland. With some 180,000 plus visitors a year, the museum is now one of Scotland's leading 'free-to-enter' attractions. Summerlee's main features are:
• A huge under-cover exhibition hall, with a variety of interactive exhibits, 'hands on' activities for children and working machinery to view.
• Re-created adit mine and miners' cottages. The houses show the domestic side of their lives from the 1840s to the 1980s. It also has an old fashioned sweetie shop.
• An working heritage tramway with restored working tram cars. A modest fee gives a return ticket (discounted for children).
• A large play area with a wide range of slides, climbing frames and an accessible swing and trampoline (use your radar key).
• The Photomedia Studio; a community resource for the creative development of photographic skills in both traditional film and digital media. Information on classes and exhibitions available from Summerlee at culturenl.co.uk/arts/photomedia-studio/. Within the main exhibition hall there are also toilets (including baby-changing and a changing place), a café and a shop with a range of local and heritage-themed gifts, toys and books.
