This season at Culzean sees some groundbreaking new interpretation. Visitors can now choose to take a multimedia tour which tells the stories of the Trusts’s flagship property, and brings its rooms to life.
The tour, developed by multimedia company ATS with input from Jo Anthony, Interpetation Project Manager, and the property, runs on easy to use equipment based on i-pod touch technology and gives visitors choice, with browse-able menus and layers of information including a “just for fun” option in every room.
Content includes dramatic reconstructions showing rooms in use, contextual historic images, and the chance to see inside objects that would only normally be viewed by curators. Visitors can hear the chime of the Bloodhound clock, the sound of the 19th century barrel organ or open the secret compartments inside the Douglas heart cabinet – one of the oldest pieces of furniture in the castle. Another highlight is a tour of the caves – inaccessible for most of the year.
As part of a series of curatorial changes across the castle, to bring its interiors back to how it was, as far as possible, when last inhabited, there are also three new family rooms to see. These replace the rather worn-out Eisenhower Exhibition and allow us to show the Kennedy’s private suite and link to the nursery wing.
Research with visitors indicated that they were most interested in seeing the actual appartment where the president stayed and his connection with Culzean. Rich audio-visual content on the new i-pod tour now tells Eisenhower’s story and allows our visitors to take a virtual tour of the suite- now a hotel.
There are new information cards in a range of languages, and fresh new welcome signs designed by Studio LR (using existing Trust guidelines) with a new illustrated estate map and castle illustration by up and coming artist Vicki Gausden, the latter giving a peek to some of the rooms inside. The new map and cards are deliberately bright and contemporary to appeal to a wide range of visitors.
The Ailsa room (formerly an exhibition about the family) now gives insight to the wider estate. The servants corridor is also being refreshed and when ready will feature memories of castle life in the 1930s.
We have kept a light touch in these areas to work in harmony with the Robert Adam architecture, and hope that the quotes (taken from oral history interviews with former family and staff) applied in vinyl lettering will have the effect that the walls themselves are speaking.
