A HELENSBURGH-based museum dedicated to celebrating Scotland’s submarine heritage has been highly commended at a national awards ceremony.

The Scottish Submarine Centre on West King Street opened just over a year ago and was shortlisted in the Innovation of the Year category at the 2019 Museum and Heritage Awards for its ‘Inside Out’ project.

Despite missing out on claiming the top prize - finishing runner-up to the Imperial War Museum’s documentary They Shall Not Grow Old, directed by Peter Jackson no less - it was highly commended for its enlightening exhibition.

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Brian Keating, the project’s founder and trustee, said: “Helensburgh has another reason for visitors to come and this attraction will bring tens of thousand to the town centre over the coming years.

“This kind of national acknowledgement is gratefully received. Building an award-winning museum in five years from an idea couldn’t have happened without determination to overcome the obstacles and a lot help from our friends, who are many.”

The submarine centre’s display uses state-of-the-art immersive projection and sound in its presentation of the X51 Stickleback - a 1952 Royal Navy submarine.

The use of video mapping technology and the centre’s complex projection system shows a full-scale digitalised version of the inside of the submarine on the outside of the hull, making it possible to see how the submarine works.

The exhibition highlights the role of high-end projection for shared virtual reality (VR) experiences and demonstrates a new way to show how heritage objects work.

The submarine centre was shortlisted alongside four other museums in the 17th year of the awards, with the presentation event taking place in London.

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David Dunbar, the centre’s head of digital, added: “As the only Scottish museum to be shortlisted for innovation we were surprised and delighted to finish ahead of the national museums. It’s not every day a wee local museum gets acknowledged by judges from some of the best museums in the world.”

Special thanks also went to Argyll and Bute Council, Coastal Community Fund and The Armed Forces Covenant, along with Chris Terris, Bob Seaward, Clair McNamara, Chris Leggett and Jim Rodgers plus the army of volunteers.