I had to go out and pick up a few last-minute display bits for the Pop Up Shop over the weekend, and I thought I would treat myself to a quick wander around one of my favourite places in Dublin – the Natural History Museum!
I love this place. It’s like a museum of a museum – a real old-fashioned collection of interesting things in hardwood and glass cases, uncluttered by the beeping interactive displays and looping videos that infest most modern museums. Most of the animals are labelled with only their name (in English and Latin), where they came from and when they were added to the collection. If you want to know more about them, you have everything you need to do the rest of the legwork yourself at home. This frees you up to actually look at the animals while you’re in the museum, and appreciate their size, their colouring, the crazier features of their bodies that help them to survive… it’s also a great place to do some people-watching!
I figured Victorian Explorer Beastie would feel right at home here, so I brought him along for the ride.
The ground floor of the building houses Irish fauna. These giant Irish elk skeletons greet you as you walk in!
Even the smallest animals get a look-in – there are cases at the back containing all kinds of minibeasts, from beetles to slugs. Understandably, perhaps, the butterflies and moths are the most popular!
Upstairs is the “Animals of the World” exhibition, where Victorian Explorer Beastie came face-to-face with a monkey…
… Met a record-breaking Irish wolfhound…
…And realised he is much, much smaller than an elephant.
He also nearly got into a spot of bother – LOOK BEHIND YOU!
Turned out the hippo was only having a bit of a yawn, so we left unscathed. But we’ll be back! Hope you enjoyed visiting with us!
What an adventurer your Beastie is, wasn’t he nervous with all the animals around?
Not at all! I suppose the fact that most of the dangerous ones were safely locked up in display cases helped boost his courage!