The island was taken over by dinosaurs over the last week.

The ‘Dino Express’ was hosted by Isle of Man Transport as part of the Heritage Railway’s 150th-anniversary celebrations.

The event ran over five days, with families enjoying a dinosaur treasure hunt on the train journey between Douglas and Ballasalla before heading to Rushen Abbey where they came face to face with Bronwen the brontosaurus, Loki the velociraptor and a T-Rex.

There was also a miniature stegosaurus as well as an ankylosaurus and ceratosaurus.

Lottie Bennett, hospitality and events executive officer at Isle of Man Transport said: ‘Dinosaurs are a passion of all children. They love dinosaurs so we have been thinking for the past year about how we can bring them across.

‘We worked in collaboration with the Steam Packet who was great at helping support the event and Manx National Heritage as well, who let us use Rushen Abbey.

‘We tried to make it so the children can get up close and personal, with them being able to stroke the dinosaurs, but there is also the educational side of it.

‘Rangers taught the children the difference between a herbivore and a carnivore, how the dinosaurs battle each other, how they defend and protect themselves, the various sizes and how the dinosaurs grow, and we gave a full description of how the dinosaurs lived.’

The dinosaurs will return next year after the event sold over 1,000 tickets this year.