SCOTLAND'S most daring new tourist attraction is under development: a Disney-style theme park dreamed up by the director of a legendary horror film that re-enacts the darkest scenes from the nation's history.
The Spirit of Scotland centre will use the kind of technology seen at popular tourist destinations such as realistic 3D holographic projections, animatronics, multiple screens and revolving stages, to enable tourists to see moments of history recreated in front of their eyes, including the beheading of Mary Queen of Scots and the 1567 murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley.
The creators of the attraction describe it as a "time-traveller" experience as it immerses visitors in the past – particularly the most bloody aspects of Scotland's history.
Robin Hardy, director of the cult horror film The Wicker Man, who is organising the funding for the park, says that while the scenes will not be gory or graphic, they will not be suitable for children under 10.
The 30-acre park, which is expected to attract 900,000 visitors a year, will take at least three years to develop and advanced negotiations over a site south of Edinburgh are under way.
The focus of the centre is a glass geodesic dome surrounded by six pavilions housing specific Scottish themes including inventions, language, music and a building devoted solely to Mary, Queen of Scots.
The design has been compared to the Eden Project visitor attraction in Cornwall. Hardy, pictured below, told the Sunday Herald: "I wanted it to be something that is of interest to the Scottish population, particularly schools.
"But it's not for little kids. It's not going to be a fun fair. There will be aspects of it which might even frighten little kids which I obviously don't want to do."
Hardy described the life and death of Mary, Queen of Scots as a "romantic story and a tragedy", adding: "We plan to dramatise it very believably ... again not ideal for seven-year-olds."
The organisers aim to employ "Pepper's Ghost" technology, an illusionary technique often employed in large-scale magic tricks, which uses lights reflected by mirrors to create virtual images on stage. It is often used to make what appears to be a ghost materialise in front of an audience.
Project architect Alastair MacIntyre, senior partner in McInnes Gardner, said: "It is telling a story in an exciting way, that can take it out of a book and make it less grey ... It brings it home to you in a way that it may not otherwise."
He added: "You can see the murder [of Lord Darnley] being acted out in one of the pavilions ... We are talking about filmmakers here, there will be levels of self interpretation, there won't be blood spattering across the audience."
Hardy says they have already had positive discussions with Scottish Government ministers and Scottish Enterprise.
He hopes to have the park ready to take advantage of the opening of the proposed £300 million railway linking the Borders to Edinburgh. The Scottish Government believes it is on track for completion by the end of 2014.
He has been ruminating about a park since 1999 which he initially wanted to locate in Loch Lomond.
The plan is for the park to open all year round with an adult two-day pass priced at £17.50.
"The idea was inspired by the fact we have the technology available to us now to recreate the past or the future, or accentuate what we want to say about the present," said Hardy.
"So a theme park which is a celebration of various aspects of Scotland's recent or even longer history can use all this technology in a way which couldn't have been done even 10 years ago."
Neil Baxter of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, which has been consulted informally over the design, described the plan as "totally exciting – big and visionary". "It is about popularising culture and heritage and as far as we are concerned that's a completely positive and praiseworthy endeavour," he said.
"It is a visitor park that will be done to a very, very high level, using a lot of the techniques the likes of Disney use."
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