The museum is located alongside the Killhope Burn, about 4 km upstream from Cowshill, and is accessible via the A689 road between Stanhope, County Durham and Alston, Cumbria.

The museum is open every day between 1 April and 31 October, but is closed (except to pre-booked groups) during the winter months, when weather conditions in the area can be severe.

Lead ore in the North Pennines occurs in mineralised veins within the Carboniferous rocks of the area.

[1] In 1853, W B Lead began driving the Park Level Mine, which eventually intersected 11 mineral veins.

In 1878, soon after the mine struck the richest of the veins, the Park Level Mill was brought into operation, to speed up the process of washing the ore.

The mine was re-opened briefly in 1916, during the First World War, after which it lay derelict for over 60 years, during which time the buildings crumbled and any equipment that could be removed was salvaged for scrap.

[2] By 1980, the Killhope Wheel was facing demolition, the washing floor had become a marshy field, and the rest of the site was decaying.