Castle Quest AR trail app – Caerlaverock Castle

The Client

Historic Environment Scotland

The Brief

To create a fun AR trail app in and around the ruins of Caerlaverock Castle to introduce visitors to the story of the infamous siege of 1300 and what a medieval household would have been like.

We created a GPS triggered Quest app that encourages visitors to explore the Castle grounds to unlock and meet virtual characters from the past with Augmented Reality (AR). Each character provided a clue to help solve the puzzle.

A 3D GPS map helped visitors to navigate around the castle and surrounding woodland to find virtual animated characters that appeared with Augmented Reality to tell them a little bit about medieval life and what had happened during the siege.

As they met each of 11 characters, each with different roles within the household, visitors were able to gather evidence and complete a challenge to determine which member of the household may not have been telling the truth.

There was no set route to follow so AI within the app allowed it to determine which characters the visitors had already met.

The app has had great reviews, with visitors saying it really enhanced their visitor experience and helped them to learn more about medieval life. An unexpected but very welcome outcome is the positive effect it has had on visitors with autism – helping them to engage with the environment and its stories in a focussed way.