iDynamic EarthHolyrood
Monsters and Myths Trail
This exhibition has ended.
October family trail through the galleries uncovering the science behind dragons, kelpies and werewolves, ending with colour-changing potion-making in the café.
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The last stop is a café table, where kids measure and mix a Dragon's Magical Potion and watch it change colour. It's edible and vegan, and Mix Up Theatre's seven-year-old reviewer gave the trail five stars but "didn't really like the taste".
Before that, you follow a Mythical Map through Dynamic Earth's permanent galleries, collecting a stamp at each legend: dragons, kelpies, werewolves, and the real creatures and natural science that inspired them. It's back for a second October after 2025, with new stories. Edinburgh runs a ghost tour down every Old Town close; this is the one that ends with the kids eating the evidence.
It's a £4.50 add-on to gallery admission, bought online or at the desk while stocks last. Allow 10 minutes for the potion, which stops 30 minutes before closing.
Look for
The Dragon's Magical Potion
In Core Café, kids measure and mix the ingredients, then watch the potion change colour before learning the science behind it.
The Mythical Map
A stamp card that sends you through the galleries hunting for dragons, kelpies and werewolves, with a stamp at each legend you find.
The take-away jelly pot
If you can't fit in the potion-making on the day, you get a jelly pot to do the experiment at home instead.
Good for
- Rainy Days
- Small Kids
With kids
Built for kids, though open to all ages; younger ones may need a grown-up's help with the map. Potion ingredients are vegan.
Also at Dynamic Earth
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- Dynamic EarthChabe01 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Imagine if… Celebrating 30 years of Edinburgh's World Heritage Site‘Auld Reekie City’ by Tony
- Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in ColourCourtesy of Dovecot Studios
- Costume Couture: Sixty Years of CospropCourtesy of Dovecot Studios
- Museum of EdinburghStewart Lamb Cromar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Museum of ChildhoodPretzelles / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dovecot StudiosMike Wilkinson, CC BY-SA 3.0
- CollectiveGodot13 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0