Macdonald & Lawrence Timber Framing Ltd.

Fundraisers have hit their target in a multi-million-pound bid to save Captain Robert Scott’s Antarctic hut.

Exactly 100 years to the day from when the legendary explorer arrived in Antarctica for his final expedition, the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust announced its coffers were full to ensure the conservation of the Ross Sea hut. It was erected in 1911 at Cape Evans on Ross Island.

The ill-fated expedition saw Scott and four companions reach the South Pole in January 1912, only to discover that Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his party had already got there a few weeks earlier.

Scott and his team – which included Lieutenant Henry Bowers, 29, from Greenock – all died on the return journey. They were buried on Antarctica.

Among the belongings in Scott’s possession when his frozen body was discovered by a search party, was a letter to one of his closest friends, Scottish author JM Barrie. The ship used for Scott’s voyage to the South Pole, the Discovery, is berthed in Dundee.

His hut has survived but warm summers followed by freezing winters meant it needed urgent repairs. It contained more than 8000 artefacts dating from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, making it a treasured time capsule.