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The Nessie Hunt board game won many awards in the
nineteen-eighties and the inventor has wanted to create an on-line version
ever since. The Virtual Scottish Highlands has provided that opportunity,
even better ... it is totally free of charge.
Players begin the game by getting their brief from the Loch Ness Project base camp on the shores of the virtual loch. The player's record is created in an external database and then eye witness accounts are collected around the loch. Next cameras are deployed, underwater cameras too, sonar machines and biological equipment, before the player finally uses a cage in an attempt to trap Nessie! Don't panic, though, Nessie is not harmed and the game is decided on points won each month and cash prizes are awarded.
The Virtual Drumnadrochit village contains a fully fledged
Loch Ness Exhibition in a representation of the real Loch Ness Centre.
While the exhibition cannot contain the superb multimedia presentation in the real centre, it does provide all of the evidence and includes the bulk of the real pictures, sonar charts and analysis. What's more ... the virtual exhibition is completely free.
To find out more go to the real Loch Ness Centre website.
The real Jacobite Cruises operation is represented in the
Virtual Scottish Highlands although we can't quite reproduce the magic of
experiencing a trip on the real loch. The trips on the virtual Loch Ness are
free of charge and there are multiple options. You can take a short trip to
Urquhart Castle, Boleskine House and back, or the full length of the loch,
or even right through the Caledonian Canal into Loch Oich and even Loch
Lochy..
To find out more go to the real Jacobite Cruises website.
The real-life Jacobite Cruises company does not operate water taxis, but in
the
Virtual
Scottish Highlands
they sponsor water taxis which travel throughout the sims.
Taxi ranks are at the Loch Ness Inn, Urquhart Castle, Boleskine House, Invermoriston, Fort Augustus, Glengarry Castle on Loch Oich, Letterfinlay Lodge on Loch Lochy and at the ramblers' campsite at the western end of Loch Lochy.
These taxis are essential for getting about in the Virtual Scottish Highlands and are one of our most popular attractions. They are completely free, of course.
GLENGARRY CASTLESee the ruin of Glengarry castle standing on the shores of Loch Oich.
We have a team of avatars who take great pride in making new
visitors feel at home and the networking area is in the Loch Ness Inn - a
reconstruction of Aldourie Castle.
Aldourie is a baronial mansion which stands on the side of Loch Ness. Parts of it date back to the sixteenth century although there have been many extensions added over the years.
Recently
the real-life owners of Aldourie have refurbished it to five star standard
and also redecorated the exterior from its original pink to a more subtle
stone colour. In the Virtual Scottish Highlands we took the opportunity to
remodel it and much of the castle is now accurately reconstructed.
Entertainment is provided by the Hooleygans and there are regular quizzes and streamed music events, sometimes live and even the drinks are free!
With Second Life® being an international community there is usually something going on most times of the day, but 2pm to 3pm SL time (10pm to 11pm UK) is a busy period and there is a Breakfast Club each day at 1am SL time (9am UK). Come and join in for good conversation, jokes and the opportunity to put the world to rights.
CINEMA & CONFERENCE CENTREYouTube films can be played in Second Life® and we use these to demonstrate building techniques and other in-world skills as well as to show films of the Highlands.
This can also be used as a conference centre for talks on history, heritage and anything which might be of interest.
During the nineteen nineties,
Scotland's largest private history
and heritage exhibition was housed in Fort Augustus Abbey on Loch Ness. That
exhibition has been reconstructed to tell the same story within Second Life®
physics' limitations and can be visited free of charge any time day or night.
Today the abbey is being converted into apartments and it is planned to have a full size replica of the abbey as it was before the monks departed in the near future.
The ruin of historic Urquhart Castle is represented on the
virtual lochside and a presentation was planned with Historic Scotland about
the possibility of building a full-size replica as it was in its heyday, but
these are not now going ahead. We were also hoping the
same treatment could be carried out for Inverlochy Castle and the old Fort
William etc. as the Virtual Scottish Highlands expands, but we will now have
to look at other ways to ensure it is done accurately. Historic Scotland's
input would have been so useful.
Comunn
Gàidhlig na Gàidhealtachd.
Fàilte gu Gomunn Gàidhlig na Gaidhealtachd air an eadar-lìon.
Tha an grunnan seo airson daoine aig a bheil Gaidhlig, agus cuideachd airson daoine a tha ag iarraidh a h-ionnsachadh.
If you have an interest in the Gaelic language and its preservation then we have a group just for you.
THE CRYSTAL MAZEVirtual worlds offer opportunities to use their physics engines for fun and we have created a maze made of sheets of transparent material, only some of them are solid while others are phantom and allow you to pass through them.
See if you can find the right route through.
Our representation of Inverness Castle houses a tourist information centre.
Inverness accommodation providers appear on adboards around the city, while businesses in Drumnadrochit and Fort Augustus now appear in their own Tourist Information centres. Clicking on them takes the browser to links to their individual websites.
We have begun a rare breeds farm which provides information on the different types of beef and dairy cattle found in the Scottish Highlands in addition to poultry, sheep and pigs etc. Find out about life on a croft. UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
Was Aleister Crowley the most evil man in the world? His real-life home at Boleskine was supposed to have an Egyptian tomb under its floors and a secret passage to the spooky mist-shrouded Boleskine Cemetery. In the Virtual Scottish Highlands we've produced both ... but can you find the entrance to the secret passage?
The real ice rink in Inverness is also reproduced in the Virtual Scottish Highlands, but ours is outdoors. You can skate some amazing manoeuvres and, guess what, you don't break a leg when you come a cropper!
One of our residents has bought the franchise for fishing on the virtual Loch Ness. Why not try your skill or play Mah-jong for cash prizes.
Work is underway throughout the Virtual Scottish Highlands,
to create a challenge that involves hunting down heritage and history clues
hidden in important monuments around the sim. These include the stone
circle, hill forts, Cobb memorial, MacKenzie monument, Mulroy Battlefield,
the Wellington Cairn and Cromwell's Tower etc. We hope to have this up and
running sometime in 2011. Any sponsors out there?
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