Dippy the Dinosaur: How to See the Skeleton in Coventry

Name: Dippy: The Nation's Favourite Dinosaur
Start: 2023-02-20T10:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-12-11T15:15:00+00:00
Location: The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum

beehiveweb.co.uk editorial team 2026-08-10 16:32 3 min read

Large Diplodocus skeleton display inside the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry

One of the UK’s most famous prehistoric residents has a long-term home in Coventry. Dippy: The Nation’s Favourite Dinosaur is on display at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Jordan Well, Coventry, CV1 5QP, until 11 December 2026.

The exhibition runs daily from 10:00 to 15:15, and admission to see Dippy is included with museum admission. Tickets can be booked in advance, while a limited number of walk-up tickets are available throughout the day. The exhibition is suited to visitors interested in dinosaurs, natural history and the sheer scale of life during the Late Jurassic period.

Meet Coventry’s 26-metre dinosaur

Dippy is a life-size, plaster-of-paris replica of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton. At around 24 to 26 metres long, the display gives visitors an unusually direct sense of the proportions involved: the dinosaur would have been nearly twice the length of a London double-decker bus, which is around 14 metres long.

Weight provides another striking comparison. A Diplodocus carnegii probably weighed up to about 15 tonnes, compared with roughly 12 tonnes for the bus. Its long body and whip-like tail make the full skeleton particularly useful for understanding why length alone does not tell the whole story of a dinosaur’s size and shape.

The species lived during the Late Jurassic period, approximately 155 to 145 million years ago. Fossil skeletons have been found in North America, and the animals were enormous plant eaters.

How Dippy became a museum favourite

The Coventry residency continues a story stretching back more than a century. Andrew Carnegie gifted the replica to the Natural History Museum on 12 May 1905, when it became the first Diplodocus displayed anywhere in the world.

Dippy the Dinosaur: How to See the Skeleton in Coventry

Dippy later travelled around the UK on a tour that began in 2017. Following a brief return to the Natural History Museum in London, the replica arrived in Coventry for its three-year residency at The Herbert, welcoming its first visitors there on 20 February 2023.

That history gives the exhibition two layers: visitors can examine a reconstruction of a dinosaur from millions of years ago while also seeing a museum object that has attracted public attention since the early 20th century.

Planning a visit to The Herbert

Detail	Confirmed information
Exhibition	Dippy: The Nation’s Favourite Dinosaur
Venue	The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Jordan Well, Coventry, CV1 5QP
Final date	11 December 2026
Daily time	10:00–15:15
Cost	Included with admission
Entry	Advance booking is available; limited walk-up tickets are offered throughout the day

Visitors who want certainty over entry should use the advance-booking option. Those arriving without a booking may be able to obtain a walk-up ticket, but availability is limited. No transport or accessibility information is included in the supplied event details, so visitors who need those arrangements should check directly with the venue before travelling.

Source: Coventry City Council Events

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Details confirmed against the official Coventry City Council event listing.

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