The Scottish Ten was a five-year project, initiated in 2009, funded by the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

. It used technology to create accurate digital models of the country's five World Heritage Sites and five other

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

s elsewhere in the world.

History

The Scottish Ten project was initiated by the Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution Michael Russel in early 2009, at the Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Documentation conference. Russell had heard Ben Kacyra, inventor of a

laser scanner Laser scanning is the controlled deflection of laser beams, visible or invisible. Scanned laser beams are used in some 3-D printers, in rapid prototyping, in machines for material processing, in laser engraving machines, in ophthalmological ...

and founder of CyArk, speak about his mission to digitally document the 500 most at risk heritage sites across the world over the next five years. Russell was inspired by this project and discussion began as to how Scotland could be involved. The Scottish Ten project was formally announced at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial on 4 July 2009.

About the Scottish Ten

The Scottish Ten project's primary aims were 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 Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...

and its partner Glasgow School of Art, under their collaborative venture The Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation LLP, the Scottish Ten project created digital documentation of the sites for future development of world class and innovative research, education and management. The project scanned the five UNES

s in Scotland. The overseas sites were selected to fulfil Scottish Government International objectives in Australia, China, India, Japan and the United States. The 18th century cotton-manufacturing settlement at

New Lanark New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately from Lanark, in Lanarkshire, and some southeast of Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded in 1785 and opened in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. D ...

was the first Scottish site to be scanned. Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, in the United States, was scanned in August 2009. The project used highly precise, high speed terrestrial laser scanning systems, some capable of sub-millimetre data capture and aerial optical remote sensing technology called

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...

(Light Detection And Ranging). When the digital models were complete, they were hosted by CyArk, a non-profit organisation set up to digitally record heritage sites across the globe and provide public access to the information.

Sites

Mitsubishi Nagasaki Giant Cantilever Crane at Night

The five Scottish

s are: *

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall () was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

* Neolithic Orkney *

* St. Kilda The five non-Scottish UNESCO World Heritage Sites are: * Eastern Qing Tombs (China) * Giant Cantilever Crane at

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

(Japan) *

Mount Rushmore The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a National Memorial (United States), national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (, or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dak ...

(USA) *

Rani ki vav Rani Ki Vav () is a stepwell situated in the town of Patan, Gujarat, Patan in Gujarat, India. It is located on the banks of the Saraswati River, Gujarat, Saraswati River. Its construction is attributed to Udayamati, the spouse of the 11th-centur ...

(India) *

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

(Australia)

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.engineshed.scot/about-us/the-scottish-ten/ * 2009 establishments in Scotland Organisations supported by the Scottish Government