Dippy in Glasgow: Win the chance to see him first

The Evening Times has teamed up with Glasgow Life and London’s Natural History Museum to offer schoolchildren in the city a fantastic opportunity.

The famous diplodocus skeleton is temporarily moving in to Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery later this month, as part of his tour around the UK.

The winning class would be the very first people to see Dippy up close in Scotland – the Life Museum at Kelvingrove is the only Scottish stop on his journey.

Our competition winners will be the first to see Dippy unveiled on opening day, and pupils will have the chance to take part in special Dippy-related activities, including fossil-making and badge design.

Excitement is already mounting ahead of Dippy’s arrival – he is officially on his way now, as Glasgow Museums’ Curator of Geology Ann Ainsworth explains.

“A specially equipped van is transporting Dippy to Glasgow from Belfast, where 132,000 people visited the Ulster Museum to see him,” she says. “The 292-bone structure has been dismantled, carefully packed into 16 crates and is now making its way to Kelvingrove ahead of the big reveal there on January 22.”

The full skeleton in its displayed pose is an impressive 21.3 metres long, 4.3 metres wide and 4.25 metres high. It will take a specialist team of four NHM technicians and two conservators five days to bring him to life in Glasgow.

“We are all very excited about Dippy coming and can’t wait to see what it will look like in Kelvingrove’s central hall,” adds Ann.

“This is a brilliant, once is a life-time opportunity for us to display a huge dinosaur skeleton.”

Kelvingrove is home to fossils which show the history of Scotland from around 380 million years ago until the end of the most recent ice age, about 10,000 years ago. The collection includes fossil fish, which were covered in armour plates, and bony plates of early reptiles which lived in the desert.

Ann says: “One of our most popular exhibits is our own dinosaur cast, a Ceratosaurus, which was a carnivorous dinosaur living at the same time as Dippy around 150 million years ago, in the same area of North America.

“Dippy is a similar kind of dinosaur to ones that were living in Scotland during the Jurassic. We only have fragments of these so it will be amazing to see a full skeleton.

The museum is also home to fascinating fossil plants from rocks around Glasgow.

“These are tropical plants which grew in huge swamp forests at a time when Glasgow was positioned near the equator,” says Ann.

Ann is based at the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre in Nitshill, where she looks after Glasgow’s geology collections.

“The aim is to preserve them for the future, to provide access to collections for research and general interest, through talks and tours of the collection where visitors get to look behind the scenes in our stores and handling boxes,” she says.

“A really important part of my job is to use the collections to spark interest and inspire curiosity about the natural world around us.”

Our enduring fascination with dinosaurs is down to the way they spark our imagination, adds Ann.

“Dinosaurs look spectacular, they come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, some incredibly ornamented and others with feathers….they are very beautiful and some were very powerful,” she says.

“They are animals which look like they come from the realms of fantasy. I think we find it amazing to consider that they really existed, that there was a time when these creatures dominated Earth.”

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this special prize, is tell us – in no more than 100 words – why your dino-daft class deserves to meet Dippy. Don’t forget to include your name, school’s name, and how many children are in the class.

Please note, the winning class MUST be available to attend the opening ceremony on January 22 and must make their own way to the museum to arrive no later than 7.45am.

Send your competition entry to ann.fotheringham@heraldandtimes.co.uk, or write to Dippy the Dinosaur Competition, c/o Ann Fotheringham, Features Desk, Evening Times, 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3QB, to arrive by 5pm on January 12.

Glasgow Museums, together with partners including RSPB, The Hunterian and The Geological Society of Glasgow have organised an exciting programme of events and activities to accompany Dippy’s visit including talks, workshops for families, self-led trails, handling sessions and hands-on activities around the museum.

Councillor David McDonald, chairman of Glasgow Life, said: ‘Dippy is on a mission to inspire families to explore our incredible natural history collections and the wonderfully rich, local environment that makes Scotland famous the world over.

‘For Glasgow that journey begins now as Dippy sets sails across the Irish Sea to meet his fans from all over Scotland. Lots of people are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to see Dippy up close, so we are asking guests to allow some extra time for their visit.”

Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure,is at Kelvingrove from January 22 until May 6. Entry is free.

Visit glasgowmuseums.com/dippy for more information.