Chance to help build Fife’s own Dippy the diplodocus in Lego

Dunfermline will return to the days of the dinosaurs this weekend.

While not Jurassic Park, in one small corner of the town a diplodocus is to be built with Lego bricks.

The three-day build runs from today until Sunday in the Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum, in honour of the Dunfermline-born philanthropist who funded the excavation of one of the most famous dinosaurs of all – Dippy.

The skeleton was unearthed in 1898 and became a star attraction in Carnegie’s Pittsburgh museum.

By coincidence, King Edward VII saw a sketch while visiting Carnegie at his Scottish estate and quite fancied a diplodocus for the Natural History Museum in London.

Carnegie immediately commissioned a replica and Dippy became a star attraction in the capital and is now on tour around the UK.

The Dunfermline museum’s creation of its own Dippy by Warren Elsmore and his team follows that of awe-inspiring models of the Kelpies, Forth Road Bridge and London Shard.

The one-off experience is being funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

The trust said the construction of a Lego diplodocus presented a stimulating and fun challenge for engineers and scientists of all levels, from professionals and students to children and families.

The completed Dippy will remain on display in the museum until the end of April.

People can help the build today and tomorrow between 10am and 5pm and on Sunday from 1pm to 4pm.