Time Ark

Starting with the Devonian period, with steamy swamps and arid deserts, coral seas and frozen waters, this gallery offers the opportunity to take a trip through time and envisage Devon over 400 million years ago, seeing it as it evolved through the ages.

The Time Ark houses some amazing highlights that tell the story of our planet and the moments when earth-shattering changes took place, such as the Jurassic period and the Ice Age. There are intricate fossils and volcanic rocks, the remains of many animals which once roamed the frozen wastes of Torquay, such as the cave bear and the wholly rhino followed by the big cats which commanded the domain between glaciations. For the brave, there is the chance to look into a hyenas den!

From past to present the gallery then enters the modern world with creatures from our present environments – from garden sheds to estuaries and from beaches to woodland. There are plenty of hands on exhibits in the Time Ark Gallery, including elephant tusks and a lion skin, fossils to handle and identify and an area for taking rubbings of some of the objects displayed in the gallery.

Our new exhibition, designed by the brilliant Forkbeard Fantasy multi media arts company, enables visitors to walk through a fantastic version of Torquay’s ‘London Bridge’ – a unique geological feature seen from Torre Abbey Sands – and discover how the rocks have shaped the lives of people in Torquay. Listen to the rocks of Torbay tell their stories and gaze upon the kaleidoscope of colours that make up the local red sand.