Morrisons Haven, Prestonpans, EH32 9RX
Prestongrange was a key industrial area for hundreds of years. The busy activity included harbour, glass works, pottery, colliery and brickworks. Whilst the workshops and factories have now disappeared, the industrial landscape remains, including a large winding gear, a vast brick kiln and a Cornish beam engine. Thus, following the closure of the Prestongrange coal mine in 1962 (spanning in total over 700 years of coal mining in the area), the site was transformed into an open-air museum with a dedicated Visitor Centre.
Visitors can experience the hubbub of industry that was Prestongrange, from the the first deep shaft in Scotland, which Matthias Dunn of Newcastle sank in 1830 to the Great Seam at 420 feet (128 m), and right to the end of the coal power in the area with the decommissioning of the Cockenzie Power Station in 2013 and the demolition of its two iconic 149m-tall chimney stacks. The ash lagoons created by the power station span the coastline towards Musselburgh, now home to abundant wildlife sheltered by the low woodland.
Prestongrange Museum https://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/info/210593/museums/11878/museums_in_east_lothian/4