Lasers are key weapon in fight to save Jacobite era fort from modern enemy
It was built to quell the Jacobite sin the aftermath of Culloden, but now Fort George faces a very different threat.
A major piece of work has been underway to protect the fort, which overlooks the Mo ray Firth and has been home to the British Army for more than 250 years, from rising sea levels and the risk of more frequent and more intense winter storms.
Every millimetre of the 66- acre military site near Ardersier in the Highlands has been measured and captured to build the most accurate picture of the fort – and the surrounding coastal landscape – as it stands in 2020.
More than 1,000 laser images have been captured with more than 26 billion data points – or measurements – taken.
These have been used to create a 3D model of the site and a data baseline which will help monitor changes in the building’s structure, the surrounding environment and the risk that climate change poses to the Grade A listed complex.
Dr Lyn Wilson, digital documentation manager at Historic Environment Scotland, said the scan of For t George was a“milestone” for the organisation given the sheer scale of the site.
It was completed as part of HES’S Rae Project, the first in the world to digitally document historic assets in 3D.
Dr Wilson said: “Fort George is one of the sites that we have been building up as it is such a massive undertaking. Now that it is completed, it’s a significant milestone for us given its geography is the largest and most complex. ”
Staff spent three weeks in the field gathering data, with several months spent processing the data set that helped to build the model, which will go online shortly. It means the building can be explored by people from all over the world, from experts to members of the public, without having to visit the site in person.
Dr Wilson said :“Now we have this data, it gives us a baseline condition of the
buildings and fortifications, as well as the current state of the coastline. We will go back ever y two or three years to compare the data and that will help
us to monitor coastal erosion around Fort George.”
Similar 3D scanning work has been carried out atSk ar aBr aeon Orkney. At Fort
George, the 1,000 laser scans were added to overlapping photos and dr one footage.