Yorkshire Museum

The Yorkshire Museum stands in York’s Museum Gardens, a public park beside the River Ouse. The museum building itself is a Grade I listed structure in Greek Revival style, designed by William Wilkins and opened in 1830. It was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society to house growing geological and archaeological collections. The site includes the Museum Gardens, created in the 1830s as a botanic garden on land granted by royal charter. The Tempest Anderson Hall, built in 1912, serves as a lecture theatre and conference venue. The museum holds five permanent collections of national importance. The biology collection contains 200,000 specimens, including extinct great auks and moas. The geology collection has over 112,500 rocks, minerals and fossils, many from Kirkdale Cave. The archaeology collection numbers nearly a million objects, spanning from 500,000 BC to the 20th century. Notable items include the Star Carr Pendant, the Ryedale Hoard and the Middleham Jewel. Visitors find displays on Roman York, Viking North and Yorkshire’s Jurassic world. The astronomy collection is displayed in an observatory staffed by volunteers. Temporary exhibitions have featured a portrait of Richard III and the Ryedale Roman Hoard. The gardens contain remnants of St Mary’s Abbey and a medieval shrine to Saint William of York. The museum also hosts ‘Finds Days’ where experts identify objects brought by the public.