The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow has long been one of Scotland’s most popular attractions and last year brought in well over a million visitors to see its vast collection of art and historical artefacts.

But after his long journey from Northern Ireland, the museum has spent the last few days piecing together its latest visitor – the biggest ever to come to Kelvingrove.

Dippy is a 21.3-metre dinosaur skeleton cast on a tour of the UK, and will be unveiled in Glasgow on Tuesday.

He has travelled across the Irish Sea from the Ulster Museum in Belfast, and has spent days after arriving in 16 different crates, as his body is slowly pieced together by museum staff.

Once complete, Dippy will stand in the main hall of the museum underneath the famous Kelvingrove organ.

It will take a team of experts from the skeleton’s home museum, London’s Natural History Museum, five days to arrange the 292-bone casts into the diplodocus’s original form. 

The final piece, a toe bone, will be placed on Tuesday morning.

Lorraine Cornish, who is leading the team, said: “As Dippy on Tour approaches the half-way point, having proved a huge success at the first three destinations, it seems very fitting that the next stop is a homecoming of sorts. 

“The Scottish leg of the tour, where the creation of the NHM Dippy cast was first discussed, is the perfect destination to reflect on the many people Dippy has so far inspired to explore their own natural world. 

“We hope the visitors to Dippy in Glasgow will be equally enthralled by this Jurassic ambassador”.

Dippy is a plaster cast replica of a diplodocus skeleton, made in 1902 at the request of King Edward VII. 

The original skeleton of diplodocus carnegii is named after Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American steel magnate and philanthropist who financed its excavation in Wyoming, US in 1899.

After visiting Carnegie at his Scottish castle, where he saw a sketch of the dinosaur, King Edward commissioned a replica cast for London’s Natural History Museum.

Carnegie paid £2,000 for the cast to be taken and donated it to the museum.
It was unveiled in 1905 and has stood there ever since.

Carnegie also paid for casts to be displayed in other European capitals, including Berlin, Paris and Vienna.

In late 2017, London’s Dippy was replaced with the 25-metre skeleton of a young blue whale named Hope, so the dinosaur tour could begin.

Dippy’s tour will see him visit a number of museums around the country, and the Natural History Museum intends for five million visitors in the UK to see the skeleton.

The Kelvingrove Museum is the only place in Scotland on the tour’s itinerary. 
Councillor David McDonald, chairman of Glasgow Life, said: “Dippy is here. The excitement is palpable. Like thousands of other visitors I’m relishing the unique opportunity to see this impressive creature take shape before my eyes. It’s a pleasure to watch the skilled team from Natural History Museum bring Dippy to life in Glasgow. We look forward to welcoming his many adoring fans to Kelvingrove Museum over the coming months.”

The cast will be in the Kelvingrove Museum fromTuesday until May 6.