An excellent little place with places you can picnic outside when the weather is nice, shows a great history of mining in the area. It wasn't too busy on a lovely weekend day.

Great destination, lovely staff, kids enjoyed it but were anxious in the noisy dark section, so I missed that bit. Very informative and interesting. Good value entry. Kids love the play area.

Visited here while on holiday in Newbiggen-On-Sea. Lovely place that delves into the history of a miner, really interesting if your past family was in the mining industry. Play area on site for the kids, dogs are welcome but not in the main building/cafe (outdoor seating is available). Food at the cafe is pretty good for thr price 😊 overall a good day out 👌

Beautiful art work (mostly paintings) from Northumberland artists, in the Northumberland Open Exhibition 2026 (that is now closed) While we came for this art exhibition, we've explored the rest of the site. The Pitmen Painters may be well know, the collection of paintings here is impressive. So is Mik Critchlow's social documentary, a series of photos taken over about 45 years. Part of the site is under construction. When the scaffolding comes down and the restoration is finished later this year (2026), we plan to come back and make good use of our annual passes.

This is a great day out. Plenty to see and learn. The kids enjoyed it too. There were some buildings you could get in but others under refurbishment. We arrived on the 1 Sunday a month that the sounds are not on until 12. There are plenty of information boards and they are written well and quite funny. The car park is free and at the site. There are toilets in the car park and in the main building. There is also a cafe here woth a gift shop. The staff were polite.