Describe the impacts resulting from your research
UHI North, West and Hebrides has launched two new interactive, augmented reality archaeology trails in Barra, allowing visitors to experience some of the island's most significant archaeological sites in an entirely new way, through the Outer Hebrides Unearthed smartphone app. Two new archaeological trails are now available at Dùn Bharpa and Cille Bharra in Barra. Drawing on decades of archaeological research, both sites have been digitally reimagined to help visitors explore the islands' history through interactive and immersive storytelling. At Dùn Bharpa, users can crawl inside a life-sized augmented reality reconstruction of a 5,000-year-old Neolithic burial tomb to discover more about prehistoric spirituality and burial practices.At Cille Bharra, visitors can watch runic inscriptions come to life within the chapel walls while exploring themes of belief and identity during Barra's early historic period. Viewed through a user’s smartphone, augmented reality tools overlay life-sized, 3D models of archaeological structures on the physical landscape, seamlessly blending interpretations of the past with the present. The project will continue to grow over the coming years. A third Barra site will be added to the app later this year, followed by three new sites across Harris in summer 2027 and a travelling exhibition in 2028.
How did your research contribute or influence these changes?
The Outer Hebrides Unearthed project is led by the archaeology team at UHI North, West and Hebrides, based in South Uist and part of the UHI Archaeology Institute. The new Barra and Harris Unearthed Project builds on the success of the award-winning Uist Unearthed app, which transformed the way people experience archaeology across Uist through immersive augmented reality and received three British Archaeology Awards in 2022 for Outstanding Achievement, Innovation, and Public Dissemination and Presentation.| Estado do impacto | In progress |
|---|---|
| Categoria de impacto | Cultural Impacts |
| Nível de impacto | International |