Doors Open Days is Scotland’s largest free festival that celebrates heritage and the built environment.  It offers free access to over a thousand venues across the country each September. 

The aim of Doors Open Days is to ensure that Scotland’s spaces and stories, new and old, are made accessible to people living and visiting the country.  

It is coordinated nationally by the Scottish Civic Trust and is part of European Heritage Days alongside Scottish Archaeology Month, coordinated by Archaeology Scotland. Both are supported by Historic Environment Scotland.

What’s on in Dollar?

As well as its usual opening times, Dollar Museum is hosting two historic walks around Dollar.

On Saturday 24th September 14:00 to 16:00 

DOLLAR MINING WALK

The walk will begin at Dollar Museum at 2.00 pm and will trace its way around historic sites associated with mining in Dollar since 18th Century. The walk will visit Westerton, the site of the mine sunk to the east of the town by Alloa Coal Company at the end of 1942, opened in 1943 and and closed in 1973. The area has since been fully landscaped, so the tour guides will take with them photographs of the mine to enable you to envisage what existed. Walking guides are Mick Rice and Dougie Black, an ex-miner who will talk about his experience of mining in Dollar. The walk concludes back at the museum where (upstairs) you can see an excellent new model of Dollar Mine with working train and additional research material. Downstairs is a working model of Dollar railway station with train lines leading to the mine.

No booking required, and the walk is of low to moderate difficulty.

On Sunday 25th September 14:00 to 16:30

DOLLAR PLACE-NAME WALK

The walk will begin at Dollar Museum at 2.00 pm and will make its way via Back Road to Tait’s Tomb, near Harviestoun, before returning to Dollar via the Devon Way. This walk will examine past and present, landscape and language, and attempt to see our environment through the eyes of the people who gave it the names we still use today. It will be led by Dr Simon Taylor, main author of the recently published The Place-Names of Clackmannanshire. The walk should conclude at about 4.30 pm back at the museum. There will then be an additional chance to talk to Dr Taylor at the museum and an opportunity to purchase a personally inscribed/signed copy of his book at a discounted price.

The difficulty rating of the walk is ‘easy’ and will last approximately 2.5 hours.