Visitors to Dunfermline Abbey will have the opportunity to come face to face with Robert the Bruce!
A 3D model of the warrior king was put on display to the public for the first time to celebrate the 750th anniversary of his birth.
The reconstruction is thought to be the most realistic likeness that's been produced to date and was created as part of a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and Liverpool John Moores University Face Lab, which released the digital model.
It’s produced from a cast of Bruce's skull - he was laid to rest at the abbey - with Dr Martin MacGregor, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Glasgow, first conceiving of the idea after the discovery of King Richard III of England’s skeleton in Leicester in 2012.
READ MORE: Bruce Festival will be back in Dunfermline next year
The model was produced using a combination of historical research and scientific analysis with advances in facial reconstruction techniques.
Dr MacGregor said: “In a lifetime of only 55 years, Robert the Bruce achieved the impossible and restored peace and freedom to a war-torn and colonised kingdom. Contemporary sources tell us much about his remarkable life, but virtually nothing about his appearance.
“This is what persuaded a team of historians, museum curators, geneticists, forensic scientists and medical artists to combine to create a new 3D depiction of the head of the hero-king, based upon the skull-cast taken from a skeleton in a tomb discovered within the ruins of Dunfermline Abbey in 1818.
READ MORE: Tomb of Robert the Bruce now on display at Dunfermline Abbey
“The head is dressed in a helmet surmounted by a crown, as worn by Bruce at his most famous victory, the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
"750 years after his birth in 1274, it is fitting that Dunfermline Abbey, where Robert Bruce was buried in 1329, should host an exhibition which brings us face-to-face with Scotland’s greatest monarch.”
Over the course of time, historians have debated whether the king suffered from leprosy and because of that, there are two versions of the digital reconstruction. One has a mild representation of leprosy and one is done without leprosy.
For the 3D model, however, only the version showing no visible signs of leprosy was portrayed. The team used a 3D scanner to to scan the cast of Robert the Bruce’s skull held at Hunterian Museum, which allowed them to accurately establish the muscle formation from the positions of the skull bones.
They then used CHI technology to have realistically textured skin layered over the muscle structure. The nose is the least accurate feature of the facial depiction due to the bone deterioration.
READ MORE: Dunfermline's many links to King Robert The Bruce
Alasdair Campbell, interpretation officer at Historic Environment Scotland, said: “We are delighted to host the most accurate model of Robert the Bruce’s face to date.
"Robert the Bruce’s story is an important part of Dunfermline Abbey, and we are excited for visitors to be able to visualise this story in a new way, particularly as we celebrate his 750th birthday.”
In 2016 academics from the University of Glasgow and Liverpool's John Moore University unveiled the first ever, digitally reconstructed image of Robert Bruce. Using a cast of Bruce's skull, scientists recreated two versions, one which displayed the ravages of leprosy and another without.
The new model, at Dunfermline Abbey, went on show for the first time on Monday and will be available for the public to view until Saturday December 7.
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