Summerlee Museum of Industrial Life

Summerlee interprets the social and industrial history of Central Scotland, and in particular the Monklands area, formerly the ‘Iron Burgh’. Displays feature historic machinery in daily operation as well as reconstructed domestic environments. An electric tramway provides transport round the site, giving access to a restored section of the Monkland Canal, an operating boatshop, tram depot, steam cranes, railway locomotives, an archaeological excavation of 1830’s ironworks, and a coal mine.

The main exhibition hall provides a modern and environmentally sustainable setting for some of Scotland’s most important displays of social and industrial history. Included in the exhibition are the Ravenscraig site collection, a Gibb and Hogg engine, the Holytown shop banner from the Reform Act of 1832 and the Cardowan winding engine.

The hall is designed to allow visitors to explore the dawn and rise of the industrial era through the machinery, objects and documents on display. The many interactive elements throughout the hall enable visitors, of all ages and interests, to discover fascinating facts about their industrial heritage in new and exciting ways.

The working tram to take visitors down to the reconstructed mine and the miner’s cottages, which depict the living and working conditions of Lanarkshire miners and their families during the 19th and 20th centuries. The tram passes the sawmill and wood-shed, with its display on the use of timber down the ages.