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There was a time when Wales was the largest coal exporter in the world, when one third of all coal globally was mined in the Welsh Valleys. Those mining days are long gone, but signs of them can be seen all over the region – not least in the small town and UNESCO World Heritage site of Blaenavon where you’ll find the Big Pit National Coal Museum, one of Time Out’s best museums in the UK for 2026.
Big Pit was a big working coal mine from 1880 until 1980. Three years after it shut down operations, it reopened as a museum with former miners returning as visitor guides. In the decades since, it has become on of Wales’ top attractions.
Above ground, the pithead baths building is where miners would go to clean off coal dust and change into clean clothes before going home. Now, they’re home to four exhibition spaces that reveal the story of local mining communities, their gruelling daily routines, industry disasters and the role of trade unions.
Next door, the mining galleries have a multi-media presentation telling the story of how the Welsh mining industry evolved and house huge machinery from across the decades, from an undercutting machine (a huge chainsaw) from the 1950s to a ‘power loading’ coal face from the 1970s. There are also various smaller buildings and bits of machinery dotted across the site to explore, such as the mortar mill, the winding engine house and the outhouse where explosives were kept.
However, the pièce de résistance at Big Pit is its underground tour. Kitted in a helmet, cap lamp, belt, battery and ‘self rescuer’ (the very same equipment worn by miners), the tour takes visitors 300 feet below ground into the mineshaft. There, an ex-miner takes you on a 50-minute walk around the subterranean coal faces, engine houses and stables, explaining the mining process and sharing their own stories of working in the pit. It’s a fascinating and intimate deep dive (literally) into the industry that shaped so much of Wales as we know it today.
Big Pit National Coal Museum is free entry but visitors have to pay £5 for the underground tour.
🏛️ Check out Time Out’s full guide to Britain’s best museums in 2026 here.
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