Geology at the National Museum of Ireland
The rocks, minerals, and fossils of Ireland are every bit a part of Ireland’s heritage as our cultural history and our wildlife. Geology is part of the Natural History Division of the National Museum of Ireland (The current curator of geology is Dr Patrick Roycroft (see Ireland's Hidden Treasures- Meet the Geology curator). The National Museum of Ireland holds a large collection of Ireland’s rocks, minerals, and fossils, plus substantial geology collections from around the world. In addition, we have a selection of geology-related scientific instruments, literature and art works, lantern slides, and historic documents. If you have a query: please ask!
The Fossils
The museum holds some world-class fossil collections. These include the world’s largest collection of giant Irish deer fossils; the world’s largest collection of ancient plant fossils, from Kiltorcan, Co. Kilkenny; and the type specimen of Rhomaleosaurus cramptoni, which has its own Wikipedia page (Rhomaleosaurus - Wikipedia ). There is a rare, mostly complete, dodo skeleton. And we have a wide selection of fossils from Ireland, spanning in time from the Cambrian Period (about 550 million years ago) to Quaternary (within the last 2 million years).
The Minerals
The museum hosts a wide selection of minerals from Ireland, and a large collection of minerals from around the world. Among the Irish material is the beautiful and exceptionally rare cotterite (see Cotterite - The World’s Rarest form of Quartz); the world’s largest hopper-shaped garnet crystal, from Donegal; exceptional crystals of deep-purple amethyst from Blackrock in Cork City; and currently the world’s largest collection of spectacularly colourful, and scientifically rich, zoned muscovite crystals. And much else.
The Rocks
Rocks are fascinating! We hold some spectacular examples.
There is the original 1972 Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rock; our own Brasky Mass meteorite fragment, which fell on Limerick in 1813 and which featured in the TV series Ireland’s Hidden Treasures; and Irish coticule, an extraordinary, yet poorly known, rock variety that can be traced from Scandinavia, though Ireland, and on to the Appalachians in North America.
We hold selections from Irish PhD collections, donated private collections, and institutional collections.
The Collaborations: Scientists and Artists
The geology collections are there for everyone. Scientists come mostly to study the fossils, but the rocks and minerals are also increasingly subject to research.
Artists of all hues also come to make use of the collections: for art photography, installations, sculptures, literature, and even dress patterns and design.
One example is artist Kathryn Maguire who based her 2025 exhibition ‘Material Acts’ around Irish minerals, landscape, and social perception and for which Patrick Roycroft gave a talk (Kathryn Maguire & Patrick Roycroft—Rare Earth - An exploration of Irish Minerals).