Project aims to bring Uist’s dig sites back to life

Lews Castle College UHI and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar have been awarded a grant of £271,000 from Scottish Natural Heritage’s (SNH) Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund.

The winning Uibhist Virtual Archaeology project is part of a new £5 million Scottish programme of projects to invest in the Highlands and Islands to provide more high-quality opportunities for visitors to enjoy natural and cultural heritage assets.

The Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund led by SNH is part funded through the European Development Fund (ERDF). The project has also received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £85,000,

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar will provide match funding of £17,220 for the project and undertake financial management and monitoring.

Supported by SNH, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the comhairle, the project will create a new series of virtual reality digital reconstructions of seven archaeological sites located on the Hebridean Way walking route in Uist and Benbecula. The reconstructions will be accessed via an application for mobile devices with complementary mixed-media exhibitions established at museums.

The project will be led by Dr Rebecca Rennell and Dr Emily Gal, both archaeological experts based at Lews Castle College UHI, in collaboration with the comhairle’s heritage service and community stakeholders.

Dr Gal said: ‘Community stakeholders have been involved with the project since its inception, and this will continue. Ensuring schools and community interest groups are involved in shaping the digital products is essential to the project.’

The first site to be designed will be the Bronze Age roundhouses and mummified remains at Cladh Hallan, South Uist, which date to around 1500BC.

Professor Mike Parker Pearson said: ‘The discovery of Cladh Hallan’s Bronze Age mummies is of international interest. It is great that this fascinating prehistoric settlement will feature in this innovative project.’