A live interactive 3D map of Dorset Museum in Dorchester. Click any gallery or room across all four floors to see photos and descriptions, or use the directory and search to plan your visit.
Every location at Dorset Museum, grouped by category. Tap any name to see it on the map above.
Born in Blandford Forum in 1817, Alfred Stevens became one of Britain's most admired sculptors, best known for the Duke of Wellington monument in St Paul's Cathedral. This Dorset display celebrates the county's own son,...
Painted around 1920 by the self-taught Cornish fisherman turned artist Alfred Wallis, this small oil captures a two-masted fishing boat with bright yellow sails. Wallis worked in a direct, naive style on scraps of card a...
Trace the shape of Dorset's ancient landscape at this large interactive touchscreen. Explore how the county's terrain, coastline and settlements changed over thousands of years, adding context to the archaeological treas...
Focusing on how artworks are created, this space looks behind the finished picture or sculpture at the materials, techniques and stages of making. Working studies, plasters and preparatory pieces reveal the decisions and...
The museum's principal art gallery brings together paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings and textiles in one place. Highlights range from Elisabeth Frink and Alfred Stevens to Gainsborough, Romney and Alfred Wallis, alo...
Among the finest treasures here is Dorset's Bronze Age gold, worked over 3,000 years ago. Pieces such as the gold lozenge from the Clandon Barrow burial, found near Maiden Castle, show the remarkable skill and status of...
Set beside the entrance, TASTE Cafe serves freshly made light lunches, sandwiches, cakes and specialist teas and coffees, with local Dorset ales, wines and soft drinks. You can drop in without a museum ticket and relax a...
A quieter retreat within the galleries, the Calm Space offers visitors somewhere to pause and take time out during their visit. Thoughtfully provided for anyone who would welcome a gentler, low-sensory setting, it can be...
During the 1920s and 1930s the village of Chaldon Herring drew a remarkable creative community, gathered around the novelist Theodore Powys. This display introduces its writers and artists, among them Sylvia Townsend War...
One of the gallery's most popular hands-on features, this life-sized pliosaur head lets younger visitors small enough to fit clamber right through the jaws of an ancient sea monster. It brings the scale of Dorset's Juras...
A flexible space on the first floor, the Fine Foundation Dorset Story Space hosts talks, learning sessions, family activities and changing programmes. It gives visitors room to pause, reflect and connect more deeply with...
Interactive displays across the natural history gallery reveal Dorset's geology, habitats and wildlife, from coast and heath to river and downland. Accompanying landscape films capture the county's scenery and creatures,...
Dedicated to Dorchester's celebrated novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (1840 to 1928), this gallery draws on the world's largest Hardy collection, held on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Explore his life, writing a...
Step into Hardy's early years through the objects that surrounded him. Childhood toys, family portraits and the Hardy family's own music books reveal the domestic world and rural traditions that shaped the young writer b...
Hardy set his novels in a half-imagined Wessex rooted in real Dorset places. At this touchscreen map you can explore the landscapes that inspired his fiction, linking the settings of his stories to the towns, villages an...
Drawn from the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site on Dorset's doorstep, these displays gather fossils that record ancient seas and their creatures. A close-up view of tiny microfossils shows how even the smallest remains...
Maiden Castle, one of Britain's largest Iron Age hillforts, was excavated by Mortimer and Tessa Wheeler in the 1930s. Finds displayed here come from those famous digs, including the 1936 discovery of a late Iron Age ceme...
See original Hardy manuscripts in the writer's own hand, then explore further at the digital touchscreen. Browse manuscripts and personal letters in detail, gaining an intimate view of Hardy's creative process and corres...
Sweeping through around 500,000 years of Dorset life, this gallery follows the themes of land, sea and community from the Palaeolithic to today. Objects from major archaeological sites sit alongside the belongings of gra...
The centrepiece of Natural Dorset, this colossal fossilised skull belongs to Pliosaurus kevani, a giant Jurassic sea reptile around 155 million years old. Recovered from the Weymouth Bay coast and named after its finder...
Georgian society comes to life through fine portraits by leading eighteenth-century artists Thomas Gainsborough, William Hogarth and George Romney. Sitters include members of Dorset families, offering an intimate look at...
Enter a faithful recreation of Thomas Hardy's study from Max Gate, his home on the edge of Dorchester. His desk and personal belongings are arranged as they might have been, offering a rare glimpse into the room where mu...
Roman Dorchester, known as Durnovaria, left behind rich remains. This display gathers treasures from the Roman town, reflecting the mosaics, everyday objects and craftsmanship of the period. The museum holds one of the c...
A small outdoor courtyard alongside the learning spaces, this quiet corner displays sculpture by Elisabeth Frink, who lived and worked in Dorset. It offers a moment to pause and view artwork in the open air within the he...
Dame Elisabeth Frink, one of the leading British sculptors of the twentieth century, lived and worked in Dorset from 1976 until her death in 1993. Holding one of the largest public collections of her work, the museum sho...
Sir James Thornhill, born nearby at Melcombe Regis around 1675, was the first British-born artist to be knighted. Celebrated for grand baroque schemes such as the Painted Hall at Greenwich and the dome of St Paul's, he i...
A changing gallery of temporary shows, the special exhibitions space brings fresh subjects to the museum through the year. Past highlights include a major display of sculptor Elisabeth Frink's Dorset life and work, so th...
A flexible room named after local benefactor Alice Ellen Cooper Dean, this community space hosts small meetings, talks, workshops and creative activities. Fitted with a kitchenette and audiovisual equipment, it welcomes...
Named in recognition of the Moule and du Boulay Trust for Art, this flexible gallery hosts changing displays of art. Supporting the museum's mission to broaden public appreciation of the visual arts, it offers a regularl...
Home to the museum's vast collection of around four million objects, the Collections Discovery Centre lets you peer through a glass wall onto the main store. Behind the scenes, staff and volunteers document, care for and...
A dedicated space for the museum's learning programme, the John White Learning Centre hosts school visits, family sessions and workshops. Here younger visitors and groups can get hands-on with Dorset's history, art and n...
Home to the Natural Dorset display, the Lulworth Gallery explores 250 million years of the county's geology, landscapes, habitats and wildlife. Fossils, hands-on objects and landscape films trace how Dorset's natural wor...
Home to more than 30,000 books on Dorset's geology, history, people, art and culture, this library welcomes browsing and study. By appointment you can consult the reserve and Special Collections, including maps, field no...
Through a glass wall, the Valentine Conservation Studio lets visitors watch curators and conservators at work preserving the museum's collection. Set within the Collections Discovery Centre, it turns careful behind-the-s...
At the heart of the building, this grand aisled hall was designed by G. R. Crickmay and opened in 1884, its cast-iron columns cast in Frome. A rose window and mezzanine look down on genuine Roman mosaic floors, among the...
Looking down from the mezzanine, the upper level of the Victorian Hall reveals G. R. Crickmay's 1884 design in full. Take in the cast-iron columns and arches, the rose window and the Roman mosaic floors below, a striking...
Your first stop on arrival, the welcome desk is where staff greet visitors, offer information and help you plan your route around the galleries. The adjoining shop stocks books, gifts and Dorset-themed souvenirs, and can...