To celebrate World Heritage Day today, three new digital walking tours have been launched by Edinburgh World Heritage (EWH) to help visitors and residents explore the nooks and crannies of Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site and some of the City’s exciting niche shopping areas.
The three tours are part of the Edinburgh World Heritage City iPhone app, and cover areas of the city centre which may be less familiar to tourists:- Thistle Street, Broughton Street and the West End & West End Village.
The purpose of the App is to help visitors and residents explore more of the World Heritage Site and to further engage them with their historic surroundings. The three new tours were developed by EWH and funded by The City of Edinburgh Council’s Economic Development Deparrtment as part of their strategy to Build Stronger Town Centres.
The tour of Thistle Street highlights its royal connections, and shows how the street once hosted an exhibition of Madam Tussaud’s waxworks. In the West End & the West End Village the tour takes in the grandeur of St Mary’s Cathedral at the top of Leith Walk with the Paolozzi sculptures outside it, as well as the cosy period charm of William Street. On the Broughton Street tour visitors are invited to discover a contrast of gothic and classical architecture, including the stunning Mansfield Traquair Centre.
Greg Ward, The City of Edinburgh Council’s Head of Economic Development said: -“We are pleased to have partnered EWH in the production of these new Historical Walking Tours through three of the city’s niche shopping areas. This is an example of the many successful projects that have been completed in the last twelve months to help Build Stronger Town Centres in Edinburgh”.
Adam Wilkinson, Director of EWH said:- “The app enables visitors to confidently explore the World Heritage Site, taking them to places they might easily miss. It also adds greatly to their experience, enabling users to hear stories about past residents, to see what others have found interesting and leave their own comments. This changes what is traditionally a passive activity, like simply reading a guidebook, into a much more engaging and interesting experience.”
There are City maps, zoomable high-resolution photos, and stories of past residents and events to help bring the buildings to life. Users can also add their own photos and comments on things they have found, leaving digital breadcrumbs for others to follow and discover these unique places themselves.
A key element is the game feature which enables users to compete against each other, scoring points for finding places and winning bonuses for answering questions about the location. This is not just for those with a competitive streak, the idea is to encourage users to look and think much more about the historic building or location.
