National Museum of Natural History

The National Museum of Natural History is a great place for a visit, particularly on a rainy day.  It has galleries of animals from Ireland and overseas, also geological exhibits from a total collection of about 2 million scientific specimens.  

The ground floor is dedicated to Irish animals, featuring giant deer skeletons and a variety of mammals, birds and fish. The upper floors of the building were laid out in the 19th Century in a scientific arrangement showing animals by taxonomic group. 

The Museum's education team have planned and organised a variety of events, workshops, tours and learning spaces for everyone. You can go on your own or in a group, join a tour, book a workshop, get information for a project or attend a lecture.  And it's all free.

If you go it alone, you can get free activity sheets to follow, 'My Favourite Animal'  for young children and 'The Zoo in My Garden' for older children. There is also a summer activity trail called "Summer Sun" and an Autumn one which starts on 1st August called "Busy Bees".

You can also join family tours and hands-on workshops at weekends and during school holidays. Events change monthly.  There are loads planned over the summer (they are in my post on june-august events).