Prestongrange Museum
ENTRY
Free
WHERE
Prestonpans
What it’s like
Wander a real Victorian colliery site with an engine shed full of locomotives and a free audio tour to guide you round.
This is an old colliery site you get to walk around properly, not just look at behind glass. The Engine Shed has a collection of locomotives and wagons that'll do the job for train-mad kids, and outside there's winding gear, a brick kiln and a Cornish beam engine to spot on the wider site tour. Pick up a headset from the Visitor Centre and you've got a free audio tour that does a lot of the explaining for you, which is handy when you don't fancy reading every info board yourself.
Entry's free, which makes it an easy choice on a day when you don't want to commit to a big spend. If you want more than the audio tour, guided tours run at 11:30am and 2pm for £5 a person and last about an hour and twenty minutes, led by staff who know the site properly. That's a fair chunk of time for a small kid to hold it together, so the audio tour on your own schedule might suit a toddler better than a fixed slot.
It's open Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 4:30pm, from April to September, though the site itself stays open all year if you fancy a wander outside the season. There's a café in the Visitor Centre for lunch or a coffee break, and parking on site is free, so no faff there. Buses stop right outside if you're coming without a car, though both nearby railway stations are a good half hour walk.
Facilities
Need to know
- Parking
- Free parking on site. Coaches welcome
- Food
- Pithead Canteen Café located inside the Visitor Centre
- Getting there by bus or train
- Wallyford and Prestonpans railway stations both about 30 minutes walk
- The audio tour headsets come from the Visitor Centre, worth grabbing even if you skip the guided tour
- Guided tours run at set times, 11:30am and 2pm, and last over an hour
- The wider heritage park stays open all year even though the museum itself runs April to September
- There's wifi on site if you need to look anything up while you're there
Plan your visit
Is it free to get in?
Yes, entry to the site is free. Guided tours are extra at £5 a person.
Do we need to book a guided tour?
There's no booking link, tours usually leave at 11:30am and 2pm, and staff say they'll try to help if you want one outside those times.
What if we turn up outside opening hours or the open season?
You can still do the audio tour on your own phone, the tracks are on the John Gray Centre website along with a site map.
Is there parking?
Free parking on site, and coaches are welcome too.
What about food?
The Pithead Canteen Café is inside the Visitor Centre.
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