A DISUSED Victorian coal mine was yesterday named the most treasured place in Scotland, in a poll of iconic images.
Lady Victoria Colliery in Newtongrange, Midlothian, won the survey, which drew more than 20,000 votes.
Respondents were asked to choose from a shortlist of ten archive images of places around the country to find the nation's favourite spot.
T
he colliery - which now houses the Scottish Mining Museum - came in ahead of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art and Skara Brae, the prehistoric village on Orkney. It also beat Rossyln Chapel, which featured in Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code, and the Falkirk Wheel.
The much-derided Cumbernauld town centre, which has twice received the "Plook on the Plinth" award for Scotland's worst architecture, came bottom of the top ten.
The winning image is a detailed survey-drawing of the colliery.
It was prepared for a book entitled Scottish Collieries, which aimed to ensure the work of the mines and miners was never forgotten, despite the industry's decline.
Fergus Waters, director of the Scottish Mining Museum, said: "We were surprised and delighted to find that we had done so well in the first round but to have received support from visitors, locals, ex-miners and people from as far away as Canada to lift us into the winning position is just brilliant."
The images were selected by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland from its national collection to celebrate its 2008 centenary.
The full article contains 263 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
