UK museum highlights for children

Let’s start with the dinos, the saurian staples of any museum experience.

The best place to see the fossilised remains of these fierce beasts is the Natural History Museum in London. To explore how these ancient animals were unearthed and discover more about the original dinosaur huntress Mary Anning, we recommend a visit to the Lyme Regis Museum by the Jurassic Coast. You can get to know a T-rex and find out about fossils galore at the Great North Museum.

Britain’s prehistoric heritage has become part of the country’s landscape, with sites such as Uffington’s White Horse in Oxfordshire and the stately standing stones of Stonehenge in Wiltshire giving us glimpses of our prehistoric past. Cresswell Crags is a veritable treasure trove, with stone age tools and the only example (found so far) of Ice Age art in the UK.

The UK has an abundance of castles just waiting to be conquered by your little ones. Our favourites include Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, rumoured to be King Arthur’s legendary court of Camelot; Pevensey Castle near Hastings, where William the Conqueror began his campaign in 1066 and Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, which served as Hogwarts for the first two instalments of the Harry Potter films.

Another big part of any museum visit is the mysterious mummy and the British Museum is one of the best places in the country to get to grips with this fascinating topic. The Manchester Museum also has a wonderful Egyptian collection, including a statue that started spinning of its own accord not so long ago, causing newspapers up and down the country to conclude that it’s haunted.

The Romans tried to conquer Britain a few times, and they finally succeeded in AD43 under the leadership of the Emperor Claudius. Our landscape is still littered with their legacy. Looking north towards Scotland, we have Hadrian’s Wall, which was built to mark the boundaries of the Empire. In the south-west there is Bath, well known for its remarkably well preserved Roman Baths.

Our most famous ruling dynasty and the people that flourished under them have had a lasting influence on our country which we can still be felt over 400 years on. If you want to learn more about the Tudor family, here are a couple of places to start: Hampton Court Palace reveals so much about the notorious Henry VIII, and the National Portrait Gallery in London puts you face to face with the Virgin Queen herself.  

No Tudor person has been more influential than William Shakespeare. His Globe Theatre has been recreated on the south bank of the Thames and regularly puts on productions of his plays, but if you want to find out more about the man, then Shakespeare’s Birthplace in Warwickshire is the place to go. 

We have remarkable access to remarkable art in this country and the Tate Britain and Tate Modern galleries in London, plus Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives all prove this point, they’re a great place to take children. There are many other amazing galleries spread across the country too – such as the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, which has an impressive collection of paintings and sculptures and Margate’s Turner Contemporary, where you can explore a rolling collection of historical and contemporary art.

The Museum of Science and Industry (or MOSI for short) is one of the leading science museums in the country. Located in Manchester, the museum creatively explores science and technology. At Bristol is another fantastic place to explore science, it has loads of hands on exhibits, live shows and a planetarium.

Of course, if you don’t have the time to squeeze in a full visit to a museum, or you live too far away to visit in person, there are loads of things you can do online. You'll find hundreds of ideas on Show.Me.uk, but here are a few to get you started:

• Why not get up close and personal with Van Gogh’s self-portrait and then put yourself in the picture with VanGoYourself?
• National Museums Liverpool has a fantastic game called Escape from the Mummy’s Tomb which lets you become an archaeologist like Indiana Jones.
• History is full of fascinating figures, and the Tower of London has a great way to teach children about some if its more interesting occupants.
• If you wanted to find out more about the discovery of dinosaurs, this video from the Natural History Museum can reveal all sorts of things about Baryonyx.