Newtongrange – A Victorian Pit, Then Lunch and Montagu Bridge
A few hours.
The route
The Lady Victoria Colliery at Newtongrange was Scotland's first super-pit when it opened in 1895, and today it's the National Mining Museum Scotland, where an ex-miner takes you round the pithead and through a recreated roadway to the coalface.
Afterwards, it's a short drive north to Dalkeith Country Park for lunch in William Adam's old stables at Restoration Yard, and an easy walk over Robert Adam's Montagu Bridge.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book National Mining Museum Scotland guided tour
Book on the National Mining Museum Scotland's site: tours run every day at set times that change with the season, so choose one when you book.
Book lunch at The Kitchen, Restoration Yard
Book a table for lunch at The Kitchen at Restoration Yard on its site or on 0131 322 2572; it keeps some tables for walk-ins, with a short wait at busy times.
The day
Newtongrange
A morning at the pit and an afternoon in the park: the colliery's pithead and the noise of its coalface first, then lunch in an old stable yard and half an hour's stroll round behind Dalkeith Palace.
About five hoursAbout 1 mile on foot
National Mining Museum Scotland
The National Mining Museum Scotland is on the A7 in Newtongrange, in the Lady Victoria Colliery, Scotland's first super-pit when it opened in 1895; it stopped producing coal in 1981. There's a large free car park on site, with a drop-off by the main doors. Come for 10am, when it opens, and look round the two floors of exhibitions, where children can dress up for a Victorian wash day, before the guided tour. An ex-miner takes you round the pithead and through a recreated roadway to the coalface, with the noise of a working pit around you, in about an hour and a half to two hours. Its steam winding engine is the most powerful in Scotland, and everything is step-free except its engine house. Parts of the colliery are open to the weather, so wrap up warm. Dogs can come into the outside grounds only.
16 min by car
Restoration Yard
Lunch
Lunch is 16 minutes' drive north at Restoration Yard, in the stables William Adam built in the 1740s in Dalkeith Country Park. Park beside the yard for £4 a day, paid by card when you arrive. The Kitchen is a bright room looking out to the old Orangerie, with breakfast, brunch and lunch, seasonal dishes and a children's menu. Dogs can come into the courtyard but not inside the Kitchen or the Store, where the Coffee Bar is.
About 5 min on foot
Dalkeith Country Park
An attraction
From the yard, the Lugtonhaugh Walk, waymarked in red, is an easy-to-moderate loop of under 2 km, about half an hour, on a path that suits buggies. It crosses Montagu Bridge, which the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch commissioned from Robert Adam in 1792, and comes round behind Dalkeith Palace, finished in 1711 for Anna, Duchess of Buccleuch. There are snowdrops along it in February and a carpet of bluebells in May. Keep dogs on a lead in the Palace Field until you're over the bridge.
If it rains
The museum is mostly under a roof. In heavy rain, skip the walk and take longer over lunch, or browse the Store at Restoration Yard.
Photographs by D3tour, Scott and Rafal G (Maledictus Pictures) via Google
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