A pop-up museum will be touring Dorset while the County Museum is closed for almost two years for its multi-million pound make over.

It had been hoped to keep parts of the building open for visitors while the work takes place but Museum Director Dr Jon Murden has confirmed that it will now have to close from October 1.

He said that the risks of keeping the building open, in terms of health and safety, were considered too great.

“The structural engineer says it won’t be safe, so we will have to close,” Dr Murden told a town council meeting.

“This is a set-back. There is no other way to describe it,” he said.

But not to be defeated the museum has already opened a viewing platform at the rear of the building, off Colliton Street, where people can pop in and see archaeologists at work in a “Meet the Romans” event – and is also organising a series of briefings to keep people informed about the building work going on behind the scenes to create what is being dubbed “tomorrow’s museum for Dorset.”

Also planned, to coincide with the closure, will be a pop-up museum in Brewery Square, featuring some of the museum’s collections and its staff.

“Our hopes and dreams are to have an inflatable museum which we can take around the schools, shops and festival…we will target hard to reach audiences and to make the museum more accessible to them,” he said.

Initially the pop up museum could be in Brewery Square from October to February 2019 and will then go on tour around the county.