Cape Breton Miners Museum visitors first experience a virtual mine tour that travels through a century. It’s then time to go down into a mine, tunnelled next to the Atlantic Ocean. You will be guided on this tour by a former coal miner who regales with stories from his life and the lives of his family, friends and mining buddies. Nothing compares to hearing these stories of Cape Breton’s coal-mining heritage as told by a miner in his former place of work, all while you, too, experience the damp, the noise, the claustrophobic conditions he worked in for 12 hours a day. When back above ground, you can tour the exhibits and learn more about the coal industry, the men and boys who worked underground and the women who kept the coal fires burning.