A VIRTUAL reality maze has been constructed by a student at a North-East university before the real thing is constructed in the Kielder Forest.

The maze has been created by Andrew Paterson, who graduated from the computer- aided graphical technology applications masters course at Teesside University this year. Eventually, the real maze will be built of rock and wire-mesh gabions in the Northumberland forest and become a new tourist attraction.

Mr Paterson, 27, graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1997 and worked in Scotland and Finland as a digital artist before he enrolled on Teesside's internationally acclaimed course because it provided him with an introduction to Virtual Reality and 3D computerised graphics.

Funding for the project came from the university and Mr Paterson worked closely with artist Shona Kitchen and architect Nick Coombe, who were commissioned to create the new artistic feature at Kielder. The real maze is to be built at the forest in the spring and will be sited at the base of Kielder Castle, in the heart of the forest.

Carol Cooke, head of digital arts and media at the university, said: "Nick Coombe and Shona Kitchen won the commission with their innovative ideas for a maze made from gabions filled with dark coloured stone. They tried out several designs but were unable to fully visualise the finished maze. Then we hit on the idea of a virtual maze, which would allow the design to be easily tweaked if necessary."

Mr Paterson added: "I was delighted to be given the chance to learn more about virtual reality modelling and it has proved really helpful to Nick and Shona."