Scottish Football Museum opens VR experience of historic treasures at Hampden Park

Background

Ahead of the men's national team returning to the World Cup, the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park in Glasgow has opened a new virtual reality attraction, The Treasures of Scottish Football: A Virtual Reality Experience. Sited in the museum's "Hall of Fame", the exhibition lets fans step inside a specially curated virtual gallery and examine objects from the national collection up close.

The deployment

Using VR headsets, visitors can view and "hold" digital recreations of the Scottish game's trophies, artefacts and memorabilia, inspecting each object in detail inside a suite of bespoke virtual environments. The experience opened to the public in June 2026 and runs over the summer, with proceeds benefiting Alzheimer's UK.

Technology

The extended reality technology was developed by researchers at the University of Glasgow's Realities and Immersion Glasgow (RIG) centre, running on the Wonder platform built by university spin-out Infinite Muse. Advanced photogrammetry and digital artistry are used to produce "museum-quality" 3D models of each artefact. The Wonder platform itself was developed through the Museums in the Metaverse project under the UK Government's Innovation Accelerator programme. The gallery of objects was created in collaboration with curators at the Scottish Football Museum.

The collection

Digitised artefacts include:

The original Scottish Cup from 1874, the world's oldest national football trophy
Kenny Dalglish's jersey from the 1978 World Cup
The match ball from the Scottish Qualifying Cup Final of 1898
The "Rosebery shirt" worn against England in 1907
The Meissen Vase presented by the German Football Association in 1929
Billy Steel's boots from the 1940s

Outlook

The museum frames the project as a way to take its collection to a global audience as World Cup interest builds. RIG co-director Professor Pauline Mackay and Scottish Football Museum chief executive Neal Ross, both quoted below, described the collaboration and its ambitions for the nation's football heritage.

Quotes

“We're incredibly proud that our 'Wonder' technology will enable awe-inspiring new interactions with the nation's football heritage as the men's team return to the world stage. The story of Scottish football is extraordinary and deserves to be known far and wide. We're delighted that we've been able to support the custodians of this heritage to tell the story in exciting new ways.”

“This has been an incredible project to work on with the team at the University of Glasgow, and it will enable us to really take the treasures of the Museum to the world. As World Cup fever sweeps the nation and the whole world, we are so excited to be part of this groundbreaking initiative.”