Born on 5 July 1996, she was euthanized on 14 February 2003, aged six and a half. Sheep can live to age 11 or 12, but Dolly suffered from arthritis in a hind leg joint and from sheep pulmonary adenomatosis, a virus-induced lung tumor that is common among sheep which are raised indoors.

Lived her entire life at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian. There she was bred with a Welsh Mountain ram and produced six lambs in total. Her first lamb, named Bonnie, was born in April 1998. The next year Dolly produced twin lambs Sally and Rosie, and she gave birth to triplets Lucy, Darcy and Cotton in 2000.

Dolly had three mothers: one provided the egg, another the DNA, and a third carried the cloned embryo to term. Dolly was the first clone produced from a cell taken from an adult mammal. Dolly the sheep is on display at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.