One of the most iconic cinematic scenes has been included in a drive to bring Scotland to life.
The West Sands at St Andrews found fame thanks to Hollywood blockbuster Chariots of Fire, recounting the story of Scottish athlete Eric Liddell.
Now VisitScotland has taken over one of the most well-known beaches in the country to stage a stunt of Olympic proportions.
Instead of slow motion athletes, there was a group of 10 sand artists.
They crawled along the shore as part of a mission to create a 50m x 20m piece of art to inspire people to share the millions of interesting stories and experiences they have had in different places across Scotland on a new online community.
The artwork, which features the line: “This is the place where… we made sandcastles and Hollywood made Chariots of Fire”, took nine hours to create.
Using the beach from the famous 1981 film, the artwork illustrates how locations across Scotland can trigger countless different memories for different people.
Entitled iKnow Scotland, the new online and face to face community gives businesses, industry and visitors the tools to enable them to share the Spirit of Scotland with others.
It includes an online community on www.visitscotland.com, a live web chat function and a practical trip planning tool.
There will also be “face to face inspiration”, including using a fleet of camper vans to travel to some of the biggest events, visitor attractions and tourism hotspots and the re-naming of VisitScotland Information Centres as iCentres and iHubs nationwide.
VisitScotland chief executive Malcolm Roughead said: “To some, West Sands is the site of one of the most famous cinematic moments in history – to others, it is the simply the best place to build a sandcastle or have a picnic.
“And that is what makes this initiative so interesting – how places across Scotland, from the most random and remote to the most visited and popular – all hold different meanings and memories to different people.
“We know that people who love Scotland are great storytellers.
“Visitors want to hear those stories and it is our role to ensure those stories are not only heard – whether online or in person – but that they inspire others to create their own memorable moments in Scotland.
“We want to galvanise a nation behind this initiative, building on the spirit, pride and passion people have for this country to reach more potential visitors globally.”
