16th century virtual recreation of Fife town centre

The Open Virtual Worlds team at the University of St Andrews has managed to recreate the town’s commercial heart, and are giving Fifers a glimpse tomorrow (Thursday) at 2pm.

The video tour of Market Street, which will be posted on the group’s Facebook page, lets Fifers see how the town would have looked before the Scottish Reformation, which radically altered parts of the town.

While the shape of the street might appear familiar to modern-day shoppers, it has undergone some major changes over the centuries, with the tolbooth and mercat cross both demolished.

The research team were able to access hundreds of property records, which have been kept in archives, and use the Geddy Map, an aerial view of the town created in 1580 which proved more accurate than the team expected.

Dr Bess Rhodes said the team wanted to show the town as it would have looked before the Scottish Reformation led to some of the town’s religious buildings being demolished.

She added: “It was a turning point for the town. It’s why the cathedral and Blackfriars are ruined. The town was a catholic centre. The reformation turned it on its head and it tried to turn the town into a perfect protestant city. In fact, St Andrews went into an economic decline and ended up more on the periphery of Scottish affairs.”

Market Street also underwent many changes in the 19th century, when St Andrews became a tourism destination and built its name as the home of golf.

The research carried out by the team was then used by Sarah Kennedy, who carried out the physical modelling.

The project has already seen St Andrews Cathedral and Holy Trinity Church brought back to life. It is hoped a virtual recreation of the entire town could be finished next summers. Parts of the university are due to be recreated next.

The Market Street project is funded through the ‘Enabling Heritage Response to Covid-19 Through Virtual Reality Exhibits, Virtual Museum Infrastructure, and Capacity Building’, which is supported by the University of St Andrews Restarting Research Funding Scheme. The project also received generous funding from the St Andrews Community Trust.

If you would like to keep up-to-date with the project and watch the video about Market Street, visit – www.facebook.com/OpenVirtualWorlds.