THE number of visitors to Craven Museum last year was the highest in 10 years.

A total of 28,348 visits were recorded from January to December 2001. This was just short of the 30,310 visitors in 1991.

District museums officer Andrew Mackay put the increase down to the success of the New Horizons education project.

It has involved enhancing and developing the museum, based in Skipton Town Hall, through employing an education officer.

This has not only resulted in attracting more educational visits but has also had a huge impact on the popularity and accessibility of both permanent displays and the temporary exhibitions.

Mr Mackay said that education officer Lorraine Greenald had developed a family-friendly approach to interpreting the museum's collections by introducing quizzes and trails for various ages and increasing the range of activity days.

To celebrate the start of Science Week, the museum will hold a Rocky Roadshow on March 9 between 10.30am and 4pm to help visitors discover more about rocks, minerals and fossils.

Visitors can touch and examine fossils including a mammoth's toe and a shark's tooth.

For those wanting to do something more creative there will be fossil rubbing and even the chance to create a Jurassic forest in a box. "The event is part of a nationwide campaign which aims to promote science as fun," said Mrs Greenald.