Yorkshire Museum is one of the largest collections of historical treasures in Europe. It has a vast range of exhibits, showcasing everything from extinct creatures to Roman mosaics and Norman shrines. The museum’s four permanent exhibits cover the themes of archeology, astronomy, biology and geology. The Cawood sword, one of the museum’s highlights, dates back more than a millennium.
The museum was founded in 1830 and stands tall in a leafy park. Marvel at the museum’s grand façade. Note its imposing columns, elegant features and strong pediment. There are benches and an array of colourful flowers outside, where families and friends gather to spend a pleasant afternoon.
The spacious museum is divided into themed sections. Browse around 200,000 specimens of flora and fauna in the biology section. The majority of the collection consists of insects. Marvel at the skeletons of extinct creatures, such as New Zealand’s moa bird and the great auk, a North Atlantic seabird.
There are around 1 million relics in the museum’s archeology collection. Take a look at the Cawood sword. The sword, which dates back almost 1,000 years, belonged to the Vikings and was excavated from the River Ouse nearby. It is the best-preserved example of only five similar swords in known existence today. The majority of the collection’s Roman, Viking and medieval relics were found in the Yorkshire region.
Explore the astronomy section in Yorkshire’s oldest observatory, located in the gardens. It opens for a couple of hours in the afternoon on Thursdays and Saturdays. The geology section has thousands of specimens that range from fossils to meteorites.
The museum opens daily, except Christmas day and New Year’s day and is free for children accompanied by a paying adult.
Yorkshire Museum lies in the Museum Gardens in the centre of York. It is part of a green central area of the city beside St. Mary’s Abbey, King’s Manor and York Art Gallery. Reach the museum within a short walk northeast across the River Ouse from the York Railway Station.
