Settle Stories has created the first Google Expedition in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with support from the Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund (SDF).
The expedition is a virtual reality journey from Settle Market Place to one of the Park’s landmark archaeological sites, Victoria Cave.
Google Expeditions are ‘immersive educational tools’ used in schools. Settle Stories’ expedition features 360 degree images of the route to Victoria Cave, which goes across spectacular limestone hills, and of the interior of the cave itself.
People can go on the expedition by downloading the Google Expedition app. Settle Stories received a grant of just short of £5,000 from the SDF to help make the project possible.
Local farmer and archaeologist Tom Lord, who appears in the expedition, said: “Caves are part of what makes the National Park special. Taking a virtual walk to Victoria Cave with the Google Expedition gives schools and audiences worldwide an entirely new way of encountering one of the National Park’s most remarkable caves”.
Sita Brand for Settle Stories added: “People can experience the Google Expedition with headsets at the Yorkshire Festival of Story here in Settle. We’ve shared it with some young people and older people locally in care homes, and everybody has loved experiencing the Yorkshire Dales virtually.”
Member Champion for Sustainable Development at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Chris Clark, said: “The ‘Journey to Victoria Cave’ Google Expedition will help people to understand and enjoy one of the most famous places in the National Park. Victoria Cave reveals the prehistory of the Dales. Now people from around the world can visit it in virtual reality.”
More than 500 Google Expeditions have been created, offering virtual trips, for example, inside the human body or to the Kruger National Park in South Africa.
