Ellisland Farm, where Burns lived from 1788-1791, has been brought back to virtual life in fantastic detail, allowing users to explore the 18th century farm as he knew it.

Players exploring the recreated farm will be accompanied by Burns’ poetry during their visit, and can also interact in Scots with the poet and his wife, Jean Armour.

The inclusion of the Scots language feature is believed to be the first time Scots has been used in Minecraft, which commands nearly 140 million active monthly users.

Joan McAlpine of the Robert Burns Ellisland Trust said the Minecraft experience provides an opportunity for new global audiences to discover the life and work of Scotland’s iconic national bard.

She said: “Heritage attractions are always striving to attract diverse new audiences and this Minecraft Game opens Ellisland to potentially large numbers of children and young people all round the world. They will know Auld Lang Syne, but may not have known where it was written or by whom.”

The Minecraft Ellisland project was led by Dr Timothy Peacock and Dr Matthew Barr from the University’s Game and Gaming Lab – a cross-disciplinary lab – based in the university’s College of Arts – on how games and gaming can be used in research and teaching.

Dr Peacock, the Lab Co-director and a history lecturer at the university’s School of Humanities, commented: “Robert Burns’ life and works have a significant global impact in inspiring people, while games have, in different forms, inspired and transported players to new worlds or even provided new ways of understanding our own.

“It has been a privilege to work with the different partners to bring both Ellisland and Minecraft together in this creative project, and we hope it is something which will inspire new ways of people engaging with this cultural treasure in the years ahead.”

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The Minecraft Ellisland world was built by a team of 15 students, comprised of undergraduates and postgraduates drawn from a range of subjects, who are part of the university’s Minecraft Society.

Bailey Hodgson, President of the Minecraft Society and one of its founders, played a key role both in project setup and delivery. Hodgson said the student team went to huge lengths to create an immersive, authentic experience for users.

He said: “We worked closely with Joan McAlpine at Ellisland along with Dr Timothy Peacock and Dr Matthew Barr to ensure we created an authentic experience that captures the farm as Burns would have known it, while also having educational elements. Players can interact with Burns as well as use this experience to read and listen to his works.

“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.”