Categories: Technology

Google Earth imagery update helps uncover part of Scotland’s hidden heritage

The Google Earth and Google Maps team published an imagery update earlier today which, as usual, contains some really interesting sites. Ireland is not featured is this update, but large parts of Scotland and England, among others, are.

In recent years Google Earth has become an increasingly invaluable service that allows heritage enthusiasts to remotely explore sites of historic interest or significance; and Scotland is full of them. With a history famed in martial story, Scotland has many great castles and abbeys, examples of Iron Age settlements and Norse invasion.

With the new imagery update, many of these site can now be explored for the first time using Google Earth. We’ve included a few below,

Broch of Gurness: One of the most outstanding examples of Iron Age settlement

Jarlshof Norse settlement: With over 4,000 years of human settlement the site provides great insights to live during the late Bronze Age, the Iron Age, Pictish era, Norse era and the Middle Ages

Ness of Burgi: An Iron Age defensive stone-built blockhouse

Scalloway Castle: A castellated mansion built by Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, in 1600

Staneydale 'Temple': A Neolithic hall containing a large oval chamber, surrounding by ruins of houses, walls and cairns built during the same period

Brough of Birsay: Remains of a busy Pictish and Norse settlement

You can download this KML file which, when opened in Google Earth, outlines exactly what regions have been recently updated.

Albizu Garcia

Albizu Garcia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gain -- a marketing technology company that automates the social media and content publishing workflow for agencies and social media managers, their clients and anyone working in teams.

View Comments

Recent Posts

Competing in the post-gatekeeper era: How the DMA is rewiring platforms, security, and market access

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) has joined the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as one…

19 hours ago

Horasis India Meeting to Spotlight India’s Global Ascent At Singapore Summit This Month

Amid several years of shifting global dynamics, it’s become increasingly clear that we are entering…

2 days ago

AI scams targeting businesses are surging: Here are the top 3 threats your team is likely to face in 2026 (Brains Byte Back Podcast)

Imagine a company interviewing a candidate for a senior IT role. The résumé checks out,…

2 days ago

AI Won’t Scale in Advertising Until Trust Does: How to Identify AI Tools That Deliver Quality Security and Expertise

At the start of the year, data suggested that only about a third of agencies,…

2 days ago

What It Means When Algorithms Say “I”: Toward a Theory of Digital Subjectivity

Picture an AI assistant you have worked with for the past five years. It knows…

3 days ago

Why One of the Oldest Coding Languages Still Outsmarts Modern AI

They tried to kill it. To bury it for good. But every time, it clawed back — stronger,…

3 days ago