Overview
Dinosaur Isle opened at Sandown in 2001 as a purpose-built home for the Isle of Wight Council's geological collection, begun almost two centuries earlier. Its building is shaped to suggest a flying reptile, while working areas and galleries care for fossils from one of Britain's richest dinosaur coasts. The move replaced a smaller display above Sandown Library.
What this place is
It is a museum, collection store and working study centre built for fossils and rocks found across the Isle of Wight.
People and events
Generations of collectors built the council collection from the nineteenth century onward, and museum staff moved it into this building in 2001.
How it was used
Staff prepare, record and study new finds as well as display complete and fragmentary remains from the island's changing cliffs.
What survives
The purpose-built pterosaur-shaped building holds the long-running geological collection and many important island dinosaur fossils.
Why it mattered
It keeps fossils close to the landscape that yields them and lets public display, active collection and scientific study happen under one roof.
History checked 16 August 2026 against the named sources below.
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