About
Real places. Real stories. Brighter days.
Wheelside Adventures creates immersive outdoor experiences using GPS, audio, storytelling and real-world exploration. Based in Falkirk, we're building a new way to discover places, hear their stories and experience adventures at your own pace.
Our story
Wheelside Trading started with a fairly simple idea: build interesting things, sell good things, and create experiences that give people another reason to get out and explore the places around us.
It grew up in Falkirk, a stone's throw from the Falkirk Wheel, from things we genuinely wanted to make, try or experience ourselves. That includes physical products and local goods, but increasingly it means Adventures.
Canada Wood became the testing ground. We walked the paths, recorded routes, plotted GPS points and built stories around the real landscape. Some are atmospheric. Some are funny. Some are for families. Some are decidedly not for children.
The idea isn't to stare at your phone while somebody tells you where to turn every thirty seconds. The technology should disappear into the walk.
You explore. The story finds you.
And we're still learning. Real people walk our routes, tell us what worked, tell us what absolutely didn't, and we make the next version better.
Our mission
Wheelside is about helping people get outside, explore, learn, discover and connect with real places — families, schools, groups, visitors and anyone curious about what is on their doorstep.
“Every place has a story. You just need the right guide.”— Pip
Meet Pip
Every adventure needs a guide.
Pip is the guide to the Wheelside world. He helps explorers discover places, uncover hidden stories, solve challenges and see the world a little differently.
Pip is the shared guide across the whole Wheelside world — individual adventures, organisations and creators can still bring their own characters and stories, like Coggie the Otter, to the places they know best.
The experience
Wheelside Adventures isn't simply about listening while walking. The experience exists both on the screen and in the real world.
Your real location moves the adventure forward.
Stories, characters and narration in your headphones.
Reaching a place unlocks the next part of the experience.
Guidance that keeps you exploring, not staring at a screen.
Questions, puzzles and tasks built around the place itself.
Discoveries you keep as you go.
Your adventures, badges and progress in one place.
The experience happens outside, not on a sofa.
The technology
We combine GPS, audio storytelling, digital checkpoints, clues and progression to turn real-world places into experiences people can explore for themselves. Instead of following a map or a traditional audio tour, explorers move through a story as they physically travel through the location.
That could be a woodland adventure in Falkirk, a family treasure hunt, a seasonal spooky walk, an educational trail or an original story created around a local business, attraction or community.
The location becomes part of the experience. A partner can provide the world, characters, stories, products and physical locations, while Wheelside provides the technology that connects everything together.
GPS can guide visitors between locations, audio can bring characters and stories to life, and checkpoints create a sense of progression. Multiple locations can even become part of one connected story.
For local businesses, that can turn an ordinary visit into part of a memorable experience, creating opportunities for footfall, engagement, repeat visits and additional sales.
The bigger idea
Wheelside isn't built around one story or one type of customer. A single route can support very different experiences — and that is the direction the platform is being built toward.
One place.
Many stories.
Different places. Different stories. One connected adventure platform.
Work with us
We collaborate with organisations, schools, landowners and local businesses to create place-based experiences. If you have a location, a story or an idea, we'd love to talk.
The Wheelside ecosystem
The long-term aim is for Wheelside to connect physical places, stories, organisations, creators and explorers. Pip is the guide through that world. In time, other organisations and creators may bring their own identities and characters into experiences — that is the direction we are building toward, not a finished product.
Made in Falkirk
Every digital experience on Wheelside has been designed and built in-house by Simon Mowatt, founder of Wheelside Trading Co. From the adventure platform and interactive experiences to digital collectibles, stories, checkpoint systems and supporting technology, it is all part of the same vision: creating adventures that bring the digital world into the real one.
Simon Mowatt
Founder, Wheelside Trading Co.
Real places. Real stories. Brighter days.
New places. New stories. Always something to discover.
