Robert Burns’ farm recreated in Minecraft
Ellisland Farm was home to Scotland’s national bard Robert Burns. It was also the location and inspiration for some of the poet’s most famous works including Tam O’ Shanter and Auld Lang Syne. Now Ellisland Farm is being brought back to virtual life in the video game Minecraft.
Students and academics at UofG, working with the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust, have helped to faithfully recreate in Minecraft the 18th-century farm as Burns and his family knew it.
Players will also have an opportunity to hear Burns’ poetry and song while in the Minecraftworld, and will be able to interact in Scots with the poet and his wife Jean Armour. It is believed to be the first time Scots has been used in Minecraft, which has nearly 140 million monthly active users around the world.
The Minecraft Ellisland world was built by students who are part of the University’s Minecraft Society. Bailey Hodgson, the Minecraft Society’s President and one of its founders, played a significant role both in project setup and delivery.
“I live on a farm near Ellisland so this was a project I really enjoyed taking on. Our society is new, with just under 100 members; around 15 of us were actively involved in different parts of this from building to testing. We found that our play testers said the game encouraged them to want to visit Ellisland in real life.
“Everybody that worked on the game is delighted with the project we have created. We hope that everyone who gets to experience it has an enjoyable time while also learning something about Burns and his work.”
The Minecraft Ellisland project was led by Drs Timothy Peacock and Matthew Barr from the Game & Gaming Lab – a crossdisciplinary lab based in the College of Arts which focuses on how games and gaming can be used in research and teaching.
“Robert Burns’ life and works have a significant global impact in inspiring people,” says Dr Peacock, “while games have, in different forms, inspired and transported players to new worlds or even provided new ways of understanding our own.’
Robert Burns was born in 1759 and his poems and songs have been translated into every major language, and his influence has extended far beyond Scotland. Today it is estimated that some 9.5 million people worldwide attend Burns Suppers annually. The poet died in Dumfries, near to Ellisland in 1796, age 37.
Discover more
Minecraft Ellisland game is available to download from the website of the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust.
Ellisland Farm just outside Dumfries was the home of Robert Burns from 1788 until 1791. During his time living there he experienced his most creative and fruitful years in terms of his poetry and song. During his time at Ellisland he wrote Tam o'Shanter and Auld Lang Syne. Learn more about the Ellisland Museum & Farm.
The Games and Gaming Lab (GGLab) (UofGGamesLab) is a cross-disciplinary Arts lab on how games and gaming can be used to aid research and teaching. UofGGamesLab, based at the University’s College of Arts, promotes research into games and gaming, looking at everything from Tabletop to Electronic media, from Children to Adults, and across time periods from Ancient to Modern, Fantasy, and Futuristic.