A £200,000 project will see Lochgelly become the hub of a unique mining history project, it was revealed this week.

The initiative will see a miner's cottage built on the site of the legendary Happylands, in the north east of the town, as part of the new Heritage Trail being opened this spring in Lochgelly.

Under the umbrella of the Lochgelly Community Development Forum, the town's new Heritage Group is spearheading the project with the backing of local councillor Linda Erskine.

Fife Council's Executive Committee is backing the initiative after hearing how Lochgelly's mining legacy will be preserved by the project which has the Community Forum's Eileen McKenna, Helen Ross and Christine McGrath very excited.

Said Eileen: "We found out last midweek about the backing for the initiative and it is a brilliant boost following on from Lochgelly winning the Scotland's Most Improved Town in November.

"The Heritage Trail is set to follow the old pug rail line from the Happyland linking the former Jenny Gray and Nellie Collieries with five story boards and benches and thanks to this funding package we will be able to have a miner's cottage on a Happylands site."

Helen added: "There are a few sites on the edge of the public park near Melville Street which is where the legendary Happyland was which will be perfect for the cottage to be built which will be exactly with what a mining home of the 1940s would have had.

"It will tell the story of what mining families faced in those days and how tough life was for the families whose men worked at the town's two collieries."

Christine said that already plans for the cottage were being drawn up but there were also hopes that the weaving industry will be included in the project as it provided the main employment in Lochgelly before the mining industry arrived.

She added: "That was in the early to mid 1800s so it will be all about what the Lochgelly economy was based on over two centuries."

Already neighbouring Heritage Groups have offered their backing as have people who ran the Mining Museum facility in Kinglassie.

Added Eileen: "It is early days but it looks as if this is going to be a project involving several former mining communities and a really exciting one."