This building is closed as part of a major restoration project. All exhibitions are closed as staff prepare for the removal of 10,000 specimens from the building plus over a million in storage behind the scenes. The following sections allow you to see the exhibitions as they were when the building closed its doors. Future exhibitions will match this closely. The museum interiors and the layout of exhibits will be maintained in the restored building.
Our exhibitions changed very little in over a century. The ground floor was 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. This scheme demonstrated the diversity of animal life in an evolutionary sequence.