Welcome to Dinosaur Isle, on the Isle of Wight

We are happy to announce that Dinosaur Isle will be open on the following days:

Friday & Saturday 4th & 5th December

Friday & Saturday 11th & 12th December

Friday & Saturday 18th & 19th December

10am until 4pm with last admission at 3pm.

Please email dinosaur@iow.gov.uk to book your space for the museum or message via our Facebook page.  Please do not phone Sunday - Thursday as the phone may not be answered.

There will be special Christmas shopping events on each of these dates with discounts across our range .

Entry to the shop is free and does not need to be pre booked.  We will monitor numbers in the shop for your safety.   Anyone not visiting the galleries will be encouraged to use the trace and track QR code located in reception.

Due to the Rule of 6 outdoors we are not able to offer public fossil walks at this time.

We anticipate reopening on Tuesday 5th January 2021, Tuesday to Saturday each week.

For those of you seeking a challenge indoors we have a selection of downloadable Colouring Sheets and some Word Searches . 

We have created a Bite-sized activity you can do with some simple objects and a camera (as well as learn how chelonian bone changes when it becomes fossilised). Chelonians include turtles, tortoises and terrapins, and we find a lot of fragments of fossilised turtle bone on the north-coast of the Isle of Wight, dating from the end of the Eocene. We have included a fun activity for you at the end - we hope you find it inspirational. Click on the pdf logo to download the bite-sized science activity.

Our colleagues at the Island Heritage Service have produced two family activities to download. One is on making dragon puppets;



and another on making a Roman purse. Did you know that the Chinese were writing about digging up stone dragons in the 3rd Century AD - and what they were finding may have been dinosaurs. 


Please note that being able to run events like fossil walks is affected by the current Covid19 restrictions. We hope to be able to do so again once it is safe to do so.

Travelling on the Island
Our Island roads are different. For visitors travelling by car or coach then please click here for closures or current roadworks.

Assistance dogs in the museum
A printing error in a visitor publication has led some customers to enquire about bringing their dogs into the museum. Dogs under close control are welcomed on our fossil walks, but unfortunately it is only assistance dogs that are allowed into the museum.

Dinosaur Isle is Britain's first purpose built dinosaur museum and visitor attraction; based in Sandown on the Isle of Wight. The Island's diverse geology contains a wealth of fossils that tell us much about the past and gives clues to the effects of possible future environmental changes. Starting about 126 million years ago the rocks record the best exposures of dinosaur material in Europe. Progressively younger rocks record a variety of animals that were living on the land, in the rivers, and those that flew above lakes and lived in the seas. Plants are also well recorded on the Island. These remains show that for much of the time we were once a lot warmer and further from the sea. The youngest fossils are those from the more recent cold climates of the Ice-Ages.

This story is displayed in the museum's galleries for you to learn and enjoy. We are sited next to some of the oldest rocks on the Island - why not come and join us on one of our advertized guided fossil walks.

The museum provides an all-year education service for schools and other organizations, and a programme of public walks at places of geological and palaeontological interest. The collections were started by members of the Isle of Wight Philosophical Society over 200 years ago, and have been added to over the years.  Many of Dinosaur Isle's fossils appear in scientific publications, and continue to be researched. Dinosaur Isle is the most recent building to house the collection, opening in 2001.

Our mission is “To be a national centre of excellence in the conservation, interpretation and acquisition of the Island’s dinosaurs and diverse geological heritage.”