THE most accurate depiction of Robert Burns ever seen will be unveiled on TV later this month.
Cutting-edge technology was used to create a life-size model of the poet's head.
According to the scientists who reconstructed the Bard, one of the most striking aspects of his features was his unusually large eyes.
The 3D image of the head will be unveiled in an STV documentary being screened on Burns Night.
Dr Caroline Wilkinson, professor of craniofacial identification at Dundee University, said casts of his skull and contemporary portraits of the poet had been used to recreate the most accurate 3D depiction possible. She said the result looked similar in some ways to well-known portraits of Burns, but one surprise had been the size of his head.
It was so big she initially thought the first 3D image was wrong. "But when I looked back at some of the text that had been written, there is quite a lot of description of him as having these incredibly large eyes and this powerful charismatic personality, so it kind of fits in with that."
The documentary will show the head being unveiled to an invited audience at The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway, Ayrshire.
Actor David Hayman, who narrates the film, said it was "uncanny" to stand beside the face and try to get into "the man behind the genius".
In Search Of Robert Burns will be shown on STV at 8pm on January 22 and repeated on January 25
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article