I cherish idiosyncratic museums: the more unusual, esoteric and single-minded the better. Spying while fossil-hunting in Lyme Regis, UK, I had to visit.
The museum, run out of a Grade 1 listed church by a former oil company palaeontologist, promises 鈥渘o flashy bits鈥� 鈥� and delivers. Handmade cabinets hold over 20,000 specimens, from a hoard of local fossils to an eclectic global mix 鈥� including a 73-kilogram lump of dinosaur dung.
There are also models of dinosaurs, aiming for accuracy, but which, the museum admits, prioritise 鈥渁mbience鈥�. The last room, for example, is full of delightfully poor taxidermy.
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My highlight was the tall Saurian (pictured above). This is the museum鈥檚 take on what might have been if dinosaurs had survived and evolved to stand upright, develop dextrous hands, large brains and possibly even language.
It bears more than a passing resemblance to Star Trek鈥檚 Gorn and must not be missed.
