Museums

The Geology Museum

The website for Geological Museum – Trinity College Dublin

The Geology Department holds an extensive collection of specimens, the first of which were acquired by Trinity in 1777, and the totality which now exceeds 100,000. The main palaeontological holdings include Irish Silurian and Carboniferous invertebrates, Mesozoic ostracods, and Upper Palaeozoic miospores. Large rock and mineral collections largely date from the 1820s and contain both Irish and foreign specimens. The collections have long been used for research and teaching.

Many of the specimens were showcased in the Museum Building, when this architectural wonder was truly a Museum. However, the building has been largely repurposed over the last century, and relatively few specimens remain on permanent display in the entrance hall. Most memorable are the skeletons of an iconic Pleistocene mammal, the giant Irish Deer.

Most of the specimens have been moved to the Trinity Technology And Enterprise Centre (TTEC), Pearce Street. This is only by appointment with the Curator.

The Curator is Dr Patrick Wyse Jackson with whom bookings should be made (Tel: 353-1-8961477; Fax: 353-1-6711199; email: wysjcknp)

Material for academic research and exhibition purposes is available on a short-term loan basis at the discretion of the Curator.