Digital heritage preservation on a global scale
About the Scottish Ten
The Scottish Ten is an ambitious five year project using cutting edge technology to create exceptionally accurate digital models of Scotland’s five UNESCO designated World Heritage Sites and five international ones in order to better conserve and manage them.
The primary aims of the Scottish Ten project are to:
- Record important historical sites for the benefit of future generations in Scotland and overseas.
- Share and disseminate Scottish technical expertise and foster international collaboration.
- Provide digital media to site managers to better care for the heritage resource.
- Recognise international Scottish cultural connections.
Led by Historic Scotland – Scotland’s heritage agency – and its partner Glasgow School of Art, under their collaborative venture ‘The Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation LLP’, the Scottish Ten project will create digital documentation of the sites for future development of world class and innovative research, education and management.
The 18th century cotton-manufacturing settlement at New Lanark was the first Scottish site to be scanned and the team have also completed work on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, USA.
How will the sites be chosen?
The five UNESCO World Heritage Sites are being scanned in Scotland. Four of the overseas sites have been selected to fulfil Scottish Government International objectives in North America, Japan, India and China. A fifth site will be selected - details of how you can participate in its selection will be available on this website in the future.
How will the sites be scanned?
Highly precise, high speed terrestrial laser scanning systems, some capable of sub-millimetre data capture and aerial optical remote sensing technology called LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) are being used throughout the sites to quickly measure billions of survey points with unprecedented accuracy.
How could the data be used?
Preservation and conservation programmes will benefit because measured dimensions and intensity values generated by the laser scanners allow us to identify problems and understand and quantify any decay of the monuments.
Interpretative and education programmes will be enhanced through further modelling of the data to develop unprecedented virtual access to the sites that are restricted or closed to the public.
How will the data be stored?
When the digital models are complete, they will be hosted by CyArk, a non-profit organisation set up to digitally record heritage sites across the globe and provide public access to the information.
Read the Scottish Ten story
View the Showcase Gallery
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