The Timeline - Durlston Castle, Swanage, Dorset, UK - Outdoor Interactive Science Displays on Waymarking.com

This zig-zag path skirts the edge of the woodland and drive which leads to Durlston Castle. It is an informative and educational scientific display detailing our time on earth through a series of monoliths and quotations.

To start we are '4.54 billion years in the past at the birth of our earth'. A stone points the way into the serpentine path between the stones and ammonites. Signs declare your place in time and we find our first with '4 billion years to go. Earth's first crust forms.'

At the turn in the path a quotation is revealed on the perimeter wall:

'Old mammals, dinosaurs tread. Crocodiles
congealed between the cliffstone's ammonites
and marble's burnishable snail whorls
time. Unmanned, in the rocks' mirror distorts.

Paul Hyland'

As we continue there are '3 billion years to go. Bacteria the first lifeform evolves.' We tread onto the path where 'Every step I take is 30 million years long' and footprints lead the way.

Another quotation appears:

'All living things, humans, gnats, slugs, trees
have their origin in stardust.

Virtually every atom was forged in stars
that formed, grew old and died
before the sun and the earth came into being.

Nigel Calder'

We turn to find we have '2 1/2 billion years to go' and descend the path to see we have reached the 'Proterozoic Eon'.

With '1.9 billion years to go' we are asked 'What will you do now with the gift of your left life? Carolann Duffy'.

A small directional stone declares: '1 1/2 billion years to go. Algae the first simple plants evolve.' Then ahead is another quotation:

'Up here,
Nudging the sky.
You're no more
Than a pinprick
On the timeline
Stretched taut
By lynchet & tumulus
And the tremendous
Secrets of the rock
Time out of mind
Under turf & furze.

Jane Evans'

Around the corner we have '1 billion years to go. The first eco systems evolve.' We glimpse sight of our destiny as the castle sweeps into view and wall plaques state facts. 'Jellyfish and Coral. Paleozoic Eon: Cambrian explosion of life. Ordovician Period: Plants emerge. Silurian Period: Noney fish appear. Devonian Period. Insects crawl. 400 million years to go. Trees flourish. Carboniferous Period: Rise of the amphibians. 300 million years to go. Triassic Period: Great mass extinction. Jurassic Period: Mammals evolve.'

On the path 'In the next seven steps you will walk through the evolution and extinction of the dinosaurs'.

A marker declares: 'Mass exitnction the end of the dinosaurs.'

Then finally a large stone at the entrance to the castle announces:

'Present Day

If your walk to the castle represented the history of our earth we evolved about five and a half millimetres from the end and human civilisation began just a quarter of a millimetre from this spot.' On the sides '50M: Whales. 40M: Monkeys. 6M: Apes walk upright'. The reverse of this stone quotes a poem:

'Then might those
animals return
of which the
memorials
are preserved
in the ancient rocks.

The Iguanodon
might reappear
in the woods,
& the Ichthyosaur
in the sea.
While the Pterodactyl
might flit again
through
umbrageous groves
of tree ferns.

Coral reefs
might be prolonged
beyond the
Arctic Circle
where the whale
and Narwal
now abound.

Turtles might
deposit eggs
in the sand
of the sea beach
where now
the walrus sleeps
& where the seal
is drifted
on the ice-face.

Charles Lyell'

Stop, read and think about how little time we have spent on this earth and how our lives are very short in the eons of time past.

Scientific Principle(s) being demonstrated: The progression of evolution from the birth of our earth to the present day. Briefly explain if the experiment was effective for you. Could it have been better?: Very effective, the quotations make you think and the markers give you a sense of time and space. When is the apparatus/experiment available to the public: 24/7/365

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