London — Google and the National Trust have teamed up to add a collection of the UK’s as many as twenty 360-degree picturesque landscapes, country houses and fascinating castles from the nation’s most prominent and historic sites have now been added to Google Street View service so that people around the world can take virtual tours of them.
The National Trust has engaged Google to collect images from all around sites including Corfe Castle in Dorset and Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, which have then be digitally woven together to give seamless 360 degree images. The National Trust selections follow recent additions to Google Street View such as 19 UNESCO Heritage sites and 29 historic attractions chosen by Visit Europe.
Google’s Street View trike was used to photograph various U.K. historic sites — visits Corfe Castle in Dorset (Credit: The National Trust)
Users can now view the images of Stonehenge and other National trust properties online with a simple click in a 360-degree ground level tour, and also gain valuable insights from the specially created guides on these attractions.
Google captured the images at the end of last summer using the “Google trike” – a three wheeled bike with a 360-degree Street View camera mounted on it, suited to collecting images in places not easily accessible by car. According to Google the trike covered 125 miles at two miles an hour to collect the National Trust images.
“National Trust locations offer all of us a glimpse of history, nature and architecture up and down the country. We were delighted to be able to open up some of the UK’s most famous landmarks to the rest of the world via the web,” said Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist at Google.
The service will now display images of some the iconic National Trust’s sites, including Corfe Castle in Dorset, Downhill Demesne in Northern Ireland, Plas Newydd in Wales, and Yorkshire’s famous Fountain Abbey.
Other locations include Stonehenge in Wiltshire, Lindisfarne Castle in Northumberland, Lyme Park in Cheshire and Ham House just outside Richmond-upon-Thames near London. Giant Causeway is likely to be the other National Trust site that would appear on Google Street View service sometime during the end of this year.
Lawrence Roots, visitor services manager at Corfe Castle, said: “Google Street View” will enable even more people to take a peek and get a sense of what Corfe, has to offer.
“It is wonderful to think that people around the world, who might never be able to travel to the UK, will be able to see the castle and enjoy a virtual visit.”
The Google trike will collect images at several other National Trust places in 2010, including Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.
Kudos to Google for bringing those tourists landmarks online. However, it is not the first organization to recognize the potential of Street View as a showcase window for international visitors: Tate, the national tourist marketing group visit Britain and the Mayor of London are all existing partners.
This can only encourage people to visit them virtually first before committing to go there in real to enjoy the scenery and support the local community. The fact that access to this service is free can only be commended.