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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Damon Wilkinson

You can now take a virtual tour of Dippy the Dinosaur

More than 100,000 people visited Dippy the Dinosaur in Rochdale before the exhibition was put on hold due to the UK's lockdown.

But if you missed out on seeing it in person you can now take a virtual tour of the huge diplodocus skeleton.

Organisers have teamed up to create an online walkthrough of the exhibition, meaning you can see Dippy without leaving your own home.

The enormous beast used to stand guard in the atrium of London's Natural History Museum before heading out on a national tour in 2018.

Coun Janet Emsley, cabinet member for community, culture and neighbourhoods at Rochdale council, said: "Dippy went down an absolute storm in Rochdale. We welcomed over 110,000 visitors in just five weeks.

"More than 9,000 schoolchildren from 100 schools across the region met Dippy and visited the exhibition at Touchstones as part in this once in a lifetime experience.

"We created something incredibly special here and were obviously sorry to have to close our doors so early in the run.

"We don’t want people to miss out on Dippy because they can’t visit him. That’s why we organised the virtual tour, so people can still have access to this wonderful opportunity despite everything that’s going on."

Rochdale is one of just eight places - and the only north west venue - to host Dippy.

The exhibition was originally due to end on June 28. But it's hoped tour dates may now be changed.

The virtual tour can be viewed here.

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