Your Heritage in Focus is a project which supports North Lanarkshire’s communities to protect, preserve and promote the heritage of the area's people and places. Community groups and individuals build their capacity, develop a heritage plan and develop their own projects and funding bids. It is made possible with the National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with our Active and Creative Communities team.

During the summer of 2025 we created online Coatbridge heritage tours centred on Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life. These online tours explore the rich but often hidden local landscape legacies of coal mining through walking routes created by local communities commemorating their industrial history and heritage, and celebrating their sense of place and identity. The journeys feature start points, route distances, terrain nature and its suitability for families, buggies, bikes and wheelchairs. We even suggest the best selfie spot.

What was done

Mining Landscapes is an online platform created by the University of Stirling, to celebrate our mining heritage through the medium of landscape. Our Active and Creative Communities’ Industrial History Curator is on the Mining Landscapes steering group and indicated that we have many suitable landscapes and stories.

At the start of 2025 the Mining Landscapes App had 25 walks covering the Scottish Midfield Coalfield which stretches from Ayrshire to Fife. However there were only two mining landscapes tours in North Lanarkshire, one at Nethercroy Colliery and Cokeworks which was created by the Mining Landscapes Team at Auchinstarry and the other in development at Cardowan.

The content is community curated and we intend to have proportionate representation on the map. Many sites of industrial heritage are still spaces people engage with daily and memories of past industry may linger evoking a sense of historical and community continuity and serving as an anchor point for identity.

In collaboration with a team of six local experts and community researchers from Coatbridge we chose two routes starting and finishing at Summerlee Museum. We wore audio recorders to capture our personal stories, recollections and observations.  

We have successfully published two walking tours round Coatbridge with four in development for Stepps, Gartcosh, Salsburgh and Shotts. Our communities provide an online contemporary description of the villages, and towns of North Lanarkshire, highlighting not what is lost but current tangible heritage. Online trails include points of interest, photos, audio clips and historic maps.

Surprising artefacts and anecdotes have been revealed including:

• Stepps’ Mount Harriet Gatepost
• the story of Chapman’s Pub in Gartcosh, and
• the Ghost Riders of Gartsherrie

Next year we intend to train our contributors in the website administration so that they are empowered to create tours independently.

Outcome

Heritage significantly enhances mental health and wellbeing. Engagement with historic places can bring several benefits including: 

• Strengthening social connections: Heritage activities can foster socialisation, providing a sense of purpose which is crucial for enhancing mental health.
• Provision of a sense of belonging: historic places offers a sense of belonging and connection to the past, which can support individuals with mental health challenges. 
• Reduction of anxiety and stress: visiting heritage sites helps with the alleviation of stress and anxiety feelings contributing to improved overall mental health. 
• Increasing happiness: regular visits to these sites have been linked to higher happiness levels indicating a positive impact on mental well-being. 
• Promoting relaxation: restorative environments, such as historic places, can facilitate recovery from stress and fatigue, promoting relaxation and improving mental health.

Heritage activities also provide safe spaces for people to express emotions and can reduce barriers to participating in community life. They can help create inclusive projects that reflect different backgrounds and interests.