The British Museum feels that the close of the second millennium is an appropriate moment to evaluate the legacy of one of the most vivid and controversial writings in the Christian canon, the “Book of Revelations”. Its exhibition “The Apocalypse and The Shape of Things to Come” opens on 18 December 1999 to 29 April 2000.

Admission: pound;1 adults, 50p concessions.

Tel: 0171 636 1555.

The National Gallery’s Millennium Esso exhibition entitled “Telling Time” will be a gallery-wide event focusing on the relationship between time and painting. Exhibits will include major paintings from the gallery’s collection such as works by Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Turner. There will also be a time trail to direct visitors to works which have time as their main theme. The exhibition will run from 18 October 2000 to 14 January 2001.

Admission free.

Tel: 0171 747 2885.

The definitive millennium exhibition will open at the home of world time and the location at which the new millennium will actually begin - Greenwich - from December 1, 1999 to September 24, 2000 at the Royal Observatory. “The Story of Time” will be an international exhibition to present a history of time across the globe from the earliest civilisations onwards.

Admission: pound;7.50 adults, pound;6 concessions, pound;3.75 children.

Tel: 0181 858 4422.

Of course, not all events will be based in the capital. Prescot Museum, 34 Church Street, Prescot, Knowsley, will be exploring time in “Clocking On!” Find out about different ways of telling the time through the ages, follow the story behind reading time at sea and discover how clocks can perform tasks. From shadows and sundials, to colourful clocks, fascinating time facts and hands-on exhibits.

Admission free.

Tel: 0151 430 7787.

The countdown to the millennium begins in Sheffield at 12.30pm on Friday September 17, at Sheffield Hallam University. That’s when a unique four-faced clock will be switched on to count the seconds, minutes, hours and days until midnight on December 31 - and then turn itself off permanently. But the clock won’t simply toll the passing hours. It will also contain experiments devised by Sheffield school children. The Millennium timepiece is at Hallam Square, outside the main entrance to Sheffield Hallam University.

Admission free.

Tel: 0114 225 4888.

The Ingleby Gallery, 6 Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh offers us “A Model for the Millennium” between December 1, 1999 and January 8, 2000. This promises to bring some of the most celebrated British artists of the late 20th century into the same mini-museum as up and coming artists. This Christmas exhibition is being mounted to benefit Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people.

Admission free.

Tel: 0131 556 4441.

If a family day out in the countryside is what you’re after, you need look no further than lovely Leeds Castle, Kent.The castle will be one of the few places open on New Year’s Day to keep the family amused and blow away the excesses of Millennium Eve revelry. Three treasure trail days are planned for Saturday 1, Sunday 2 and Monday 3, January 2000. Each youngster will take home a commemorative certificate for finishing the trail and there will be a chance to enter into a draw for prizes such as hot air balloon flights for those who successfully crack the clues.

Admission: pound;7.30 adults, pound;5.80 concessions, children under 15 go free.

Tel: 01622 765400.

And finally, no millennium events listing would be complete without a mention of The Dome. The Millennium Dome will be hosting “The Millennium Show” which will be performed throughout 2000 in a vast central arena, the size of Trafalgar Square, at the heart of the Dome. The live show will run up to five times a day, in front of audiences of 12,000 people at a time. It premieres on New Year.(For admission details see feature on facing page).