Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
A view of Brașov’s Old Town.
Romania • 12 days, 11 nights
Legends of Romania: Castles, Ruins & Culinary Delights
from
Balkans road trip
Bosnia and Herzegovina • 9 days, 8 nights
Balkans Road Trip: Serbia, Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Parking Lot Shoeprints
Dewey Square Pylon & Bent 38
Black Rocks of Pungo Andongo
Abandoned Observatory of the Pioneer Palace
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Names on the bartop.
The Dive
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Two suitcases in an empty airport hall.
AO Mailbag: Is It Normal to Share a Checked Bag With Your Boyfriend?
2 days ago
Kolaches
How Texas Became an Unlikely Epicenter for Czech Pastries
3 days ago
What I Found Driving Across Northern Michigan
3 days ago
What I Found Driving Down Highway 61
3 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United Kingdom England Sheffield Alfred Denny Museum

Alfred Denny Museum

Long-secret natural history museum, featuring the skull of a "Terror Bird."

Sheffield, England

Added By
Allison Meier
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
Alfred Denny Museum in the 1930s   University of Sheffield
Alfred Denny Museum in the 1930s   University of Sheffield
Alfred Denny Museum in the 1930s   University of Sheffield
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

The Alfred Denny Museum at the University of Sheffield was for over a century secret to all but the students who studied biology there, but in 2013 the museum started regular hours.

It was founded by the university's first biology professor, Alfred Denny, in 1905, and its collections include jarred specimens, fossilized dinosaurs, a rare Japanese giant salamander, an emperor penguin acquired by Robert Falcon Scott during his 1901-04 Arctic Expedition, lantern slides of marine animals, a dolphin sliced down the center to expose its skeleton, and the startling model of the gigantic skull of a "Terror Bird," an extinct carnivorous bird that could grow to 10 feet tall.

The Alfred Denny Museum is open on the first Saturday of each month for guided tours at 10am, 11am and 12pm - booking is essential!

Related Tags

Museums And Collections Natural History Museums Secret Museums Secret Museums Natural History Collections

Know Before You Go

Parking is available at the University of Sheffield Arts Tower/Weston Park Library.

Community Contributors

Added By

Allison

Edited By

MsMoll, chris987p

  • MsMoll
  • chris987p

Published

February 20, 2013

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Alfred Denny Museum
University of Sheffield, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
Sheffield, England, S10 2TH
United Kingdom
53.381066, -1.491277
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Paternoster Lift

Sheffield, England

miles away

'Allen the Peregrine Falcon'

Sheffield, England

miles away

Sheffield Botanical Gardens Bear Pit

Sheffield, England

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Sheffield

Sheffield

England

Places 28
Stories 1

Nearby Places

Paternoster Lift

Sheffield, England

miles away

'Allen the Peregrine Falcon'

Sheffield, England

miles away

Sheffield Botanical Gardens Bear Pit

Sheffield, England

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Sheffield

Sheffield

England

Places 28
Stories 1

Related Stories and Lists

Witness the Terror Bird: Secret Natural History Museum in Sheffield Now Open to the Public

By Allison Meier

Related Places

  • One of the museum’s dioramas of animals staged in their natural habitats.

    Birchington-on-Sea, England

    Powell-Cotton Dioramas

    An English explorer's vast natural history collection has the first realistic dioramas of animals staged in their natural habitats.

  • The KGB Museum.

    Tallinn, Estonia

    KGB Museum

    "There's nothing there," and other lies the KGB told us.

  • Chlosyne leanira alma at the Bohart Museum of Entomology

    Davis, California

    Bohart Museum of Entomology

    This museum boasts the ninth-largest collection of insects in North America.

  • New York, New York

    The Treasures in the Trash Collection

    A New York garbage depot holds a secret collection of weird and wonderful refuse.

  • The CIA Museum is located in the George Bush Center for Intelligence

    McLean, Virginia

    CIA Museum

    A secretive collection featuring objects that were designed specifically for U.S. intelligence operations.

  • Entrance sign. (Wikimedia Commons)

    Mount Angel, Oregon

    Mount Angel Abbey Museum

    World's largest porcine hairball sits in a collection maintained by Benedictine monks.

  • Closeup of the elephant herd.

    New York, New York

    African Elephants Diorama

    This magnificent herd of stampeding elephants has been frozen in time for over a century.

  • A taxidermy hippo.

    Tervuren, Belgium

    Royal Museum for Central Africa Natural History Collections

    A fascinating and enormous collection of natural history exhibits stained by a dark colonial legacy.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.