The Megalithic Explorer
An Augmented Reality Heritage Experience
Step into prehistoric Britain, from anywhere in the world.
The Megalithic Explorer is an augmented reality (AR) experience that allows people to explore some of the United Kingdom’s most remarkable prehistoric monuments from their own home. Designed during the Covid period, the project removes physical, geographic, and accessibility barriers, offering a quiet, contemplative way to encounter ancient places without crowds or distraction.
Rather than telling users what to think, the experience invites curiosity, presence, and personal interpretation. These are places shaped by ritual, memory, and mystery, and The Megalithic Explorer was built to honour that.
PORTFOLIO
Project Overview
The Megalithic Explorer is a mobile-based AR experience built in Unity and designed for both iOS and Android devices. Users step through a virtual portal and are transported to carefully captured prehistoric sites across Britain.
Featured locations include:
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Bryn Celli Ddu.
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Maeshowe.
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Ring of Brodgar.
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Stenness.
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Machrie Moor.
Each site was recorded using high-resolution 360 capture and spatial audio, creating a calm, uninterrupted sense of place that allows users to linger and explore at their own pace.
The Goal
This project was created in response to founder Keith Myers’ long-standing fascination with ancient landscapes and sacred sites, and a desire to make them accessible to people who might never be able to visit them in person.
During the pandemic, this aim became more urgent. Travel restrictions highlighted how inaccessible heritage can be, particularly for those with health, mobility, or financial barriers. The Megalithic Explorer was designed as an alternative form of access, one that prioritised atmosphere and experience over instruction.
At its core, the project is about trust. Trusting the sites to speak for themselves, and trusting the user to form their own connection and understanding.
Create your own portals and step through to other worlds.
How We Built It
To create a sense of stepping into another world, the experience uses a portal-based AR interaction. Users place a gateway into their immediate surroundings and step through into a fully immersive environment.
Key production elements included:
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High-resolution 360-degree capture on location.
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Spatial audio to recreate environmental atmosphere.
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Unity-based AR development for mobile devices.
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Careful visual grading to preserve mood and texture.
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Original music composition to support presence, not distract.
By avoiding narration and heavy interpretation, the experience encourages quiet exploration and reflection.
Aerial shot Clava Cairns
3D Mapping Beech Area
Heritage, Technology, and Care
Working with ancient sites requires sensitivity. The Megalithic Explorer does not attempt reconstruction or speculation. Instead, it focuses on documented presence: what is there, how it feels, and how it sits within the landscape.
This approach reflects a wider philosophy in our immersive heritage work: technology should serve story and place, not overwhelm it.
Watch the Project
Project Status
The Megalithic Explorer was originally released as a public mobile experience.
The project is no longer available via app stores due to platform policy changes, but it continues to inform our ongoing immersive heritage work.
Concepts developed through this project now feed directly into commissioned work, exhibitions, and place-based storytelling experiences.
Why This Project Matters
The Megalithic Explorer represents an early exploration of how immersive technology can support heritage access, wellbeing, and education without turning history into spectacle.
Many of the ideas developed here now inform our wider work across immersive heritage, digital storytelling, and place-based experiences, including walking trails, exhibitions, and educational projects.
Want to Explore Immersive Heritage?
If you are a museum, heritage organisation, local authority, or cultural organisation interested in immersive storytelling, we would love to talk.
View related projects: https://www.avimmerse.com/portfolio
Interested in using Megalithic Explorer AR in your organisation or project?
Megalithic Explorer AR can be adapted for education, heritage sites, exhibitions, and place-based storytelling, from small pilots to larger programmes.
