Historic Environment Scotland

Challenge

St Andrews Castle is one of the key properties in Historic Environment Scotland’s portfolio of heritage sites. The castle is a historic ruin and due to concerns around high level masonry, public admission restrictions were put in place. This project is designed to lift the lid on the site through a VR experience, providing a way to explore areas which visitors cannot currently reach and to parts that are difficult to physically access.  

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Insights

HES has an ongoing programme of digitising their estates and collections by conducting regular 3D scans. These scans are used to create digital twins of their assets to monitor degradation and preserve history. With the scan data of St. Andrew’s Castle, we set about creating a VR experience which would allow visitors to explore the site, including areas they are unable to access physically.

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Addressing the digital divide and ensuring the experience was accessible and user-friendly for both VR novices and digital natives was key. We developed a zero-interaction mode, where the user is guided around, removing the need to learn a series of VR controls to actively select where you want to go. This mode ensures that there’s no break in the experience if, for whatever reason, you cannot operate the controls. There are, however, additional layers to satisfy the more digitally-savvy: the experience features the ability to fully-traverse the entire site in 1:1 scale, providing teleport and interaction mechanics for those who choose to use them.

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Outcome

The project signifies the start of building a HES VR experience platform which can be rolled out over other sites. The templates can be used again for future rollouts, presenting value for money for the client and a sustainable bit of innovation which can be repurposed.

The VR experience has been set up in the grounds of St Andrews Castle and is being promoted to visitors upon their arrival. It provides the public with admission to spaces which they would not usually be able to enter during a visit, whether due to access restrictions for conservation works or physical barriers.

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This truly-immersive experience champions the use of VR to educate and broaden horizons, and the iterative nature of the project proves a hugely exciting opportunity for the future of the visitor experience at HES sites.