We're celebrating a huge milestone: 25 years of telling Earth's epic story! When you visit Dynamic Earth this year, you will become part of our charity's 25th anniversary of celebrating Scotland's rich science story over the last 25 years. This milestone year, we're looking back at the key events in scientific history that have shaped our understanding of the world today, and how this can inspire a new generation of explorers and innovators.  

Don't miss out on this opportunity to be part of our anniversary year and ignite a passion for science that lasts a lifetime.  

Enjoy a 25% discount on all tickets when you visit us on the 2nd of July as we will dial up the celebration on our 25th anniversary. 

Dynamic Earth was built as part of the UK’s Millennium Project, designed to educate about our planet’s wild and wonderful history. Opened by the late Queen herself on July 2nd 1999, pictured above, this attraction marked the turn of the millennium with a big bang! A formal event was held for the grand opening of the centre on 2nd July, with Dynamic Earth opening its doors to the public on 3rd July 1999.

With its immersive exhibit, Dynamic Earth takes you on an epic journey through Earth’s past, present, and future. It’s a commitment to making scientific education and exploration a blast for anyone who steps foot through its doors. Dynamic Earth was formed based on the theories of Dr. James Hutton, an Edinburgh born geologist, who made significant scientific discoveries about the age of the Earth right here in Edinburgh. Hutton’s famous adage played a large part in the conception of Dynamic Earth’s original exhibits:

“No vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.”

After a successful launch in 1999, Dynamic Earth continued to welcome members of the public and schools through our doors. Our mascots, dinosaurs Dino and Dina, spread awareness of Dynamic Earth around the city of Edinburgh. Our CEO Mark Bishop recalls visiting the centre with his son in 2004, as pictured above:

“I brought my first child who was only a handful of months old. My approach to ‘active parenting’ didn’t see any problems with erupting volcanoes, a floor-shaking simulation of an earthquake and the icy freezing air of iceberg. My son screamed all the way round and for a good two hours after. Thankfully, aged 20, Dylan does not seem too scarred from his first visit to Dynamic Earth!”

We’ve welcomed over 5.5 million visitors to explore the different biomes in our Dynamic Earth galleries, conduct their own investigations to further understand the natural world around us and have the space to ask questions – no matter how big or small to our team of in-house experts.

This continues to this day, where Dynamic Earth encourages visitors to make their own decisions about the future of our planet, and how they can help. One example of this includes our interactive  ‘FutureDome’ exhibit, pictured on the left, where visitors could vote on the outcome of the planet. This exhibit is now our famous Planetarium, where our team of in-house astronomers create mesmerising, inspiring and epic shows on our 360° screen.

Among those many visitors, a few famous faces have visited us throughout the years, including astronaut Tim Peake, acclaimed Scottish actor Ewan McGregor and the comedian and astronomer Dara O’ Briain.

The beauty – and sometimes the struggle – with sharing the Earth’s fascinating stories across time and space is that our knowledge of the universe constantly changing. Our understanding shifts, and we discover something new and incredible  – the world of science is never stationary, just like our planet.

Since opening in 1999, a few of our galleries look quite different. Above, you can see the original first gallery ‘State of the Earth’. This gallery became ‘Scotland’s Time Lords’ in 2014, where visitors could learn about the work of James Hutton on the Salisbury Crags. More recently, we launched ‘Discover the Deep’ in 2023 to show Scotland’s role in the history of ocean mapping and how far marine technology has come from rope and buckets. Some exhibits have stood the test of time, like our iceberg – even if it has a couple of handprints now!

“Dynamic Earth exists to bring the fascination and delight of science into people’s eyes. I fondly remember first visiting the centre with my young family way back in 2004. The plasticine model my daughter created after being inspired by her visit sits proudly on my desk.

In addition to showcasing the wonders of the world, we are also highlighting the perils human activity is placing on our fragile planet. We are increasingly seeing visitors take away from their Dynamic Earth experience a powerful wish to play their part to protect Earth. We are here to promote understanding and empathy that leads to action. Every visitor is a potential problem-solver of the future for the greatest issue of the age, climate change.

We will always bring alive the fun of earth science and increasingly we want to encourage every visitor to play their part in protecting the tiny, pale blue dot that is our only home, planet Earth.” – Mark Bishop, CEO of Dynamic Earth

We want to extend a huge thank you to all of our supporters over the last 25 years for helping us to spread awareness of our planet and its future.