Scotland’s only hotel museum is bringing the past to life for a new generation through a Minecraft mini-game.
The Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry is believed to be the first hotel in the world to have commissioned a replica using the globally popular Minecraft programme.
Nine storeys of Scottish Baronial architecture have been crafted into a map using thousands of Minecraft blocks.
Players can follow the map and build a path to the past as they explore a virtual version of the hotel in the new mini-game, which will be launched at an open day on July 17 as the museum reopens following a £30,000 refurbishment.
Minecraft, created by Swedish video game programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, allows players to build constructions using textured cubes in a 3D world.
More than 106million copies of it have been sold to date across a variety of technology platforms, making it the second best-selling video game of all time behind Tetris.
It is also finding its way into a growing number of architectural practices and design agencies around the world, thanks to its adaptability.
Novices and experts alike are being urged to become the first to discover and explore the history of the Atholl Palace
Graeme Strachan, the hotel’s general manager, said: “If, like me, you have children, you will be in no doubt that Minecraft has swept the globe and captured their imagination.
“Kids everywhere are tapping into this amazing game so when we realised we could rebuild our hotel as a Minecraft map, we jumped at the chance.”
Technology-focused education consultancy Immersive Minds had the task of perfectly recreating the hotel in Minecraft bricks, using the original 1873 designs of Perth architect Andrew Heiton jun.