diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7ad8120dce388238b14d68eb520b94aa1977e489..57e17bcbf12ac751c79ca08af83ab5ffb5702bf8 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -167,3 +167,6 @@ test_data/tTA_2877_NOP_horizontal_final_2017.json
 fileForMessingAround.py
 
 outputs/
+test_data/
+test/
+PyNutil/metadata/annotation_volumes/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/PyNutil/main.py b/PyNutil/main.py
index 57194a4de8c953f123b8d3110595d92009fdff96..320776efe49d405eee8e5621a59341373b28fdac 100644
--- a/PyNutil/main.py
+++ b/PyNutil/main.py
@@ -146,6 +146,11 @@ class PyNutil:
         print("atlas labels loaded ✅")
         return atlas_volume, atlas_labels
 
+    def load_custom_atlas(self, atlas_path, label_path):
+        atlas_volume = read_atlas_volume(atlas_path)
+        atlas_labels = pd.read_csv(label_path)
+        return atlas_volume, atlas_labels
+
     def get_coordinates(
         self, non_linear=True, method="all", object_cutoff=0, use_flat=False
     ):