🐧 Support our Inspiring Explorers™ appeal and give today! 🐧

Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project

Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project

The largest heritage project ever undertaken in the polar regions.

In 2002, HRH Princess Anne launched the Trust’s Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project (RSHRP) in Antarctica, a multi-year, multi-site international heritage conservation project to secure the five historic explorer bases of Scott, Shackleton, Borchgrevink and Hillary, and conserve the thousands of artefacts associated with the sites. At around the same time the international community began to recognise the importance of these sites. The Getty Foundation made significant funding available for the project and the World Monuments Fund listed all four sites on their 2008 list of the 100 Most Endangered Sites on Earth. They are also protected under the Antarctic Treaty System.

Since 2006 the Trust has engaged over 80 international heritage and conservation specialists in Antarctica, working in our custom-built facilities in the most challenging heritage conservation environment on Earth.

Conservation Plans for each of the Explorer Bases, developed as part of the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project, can be purchased by emailing info@nzaht.org

Read the latest conservation news:

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Design Team Members Honoured

, ,
Pip Cheshire and Julian Bickersteth, members of the Trust’s Conservation Design Team, have both received high honours.
Antarctic Heritage Trust

Conservation Collaboration

, ,
The Trust’s conservation team had a successful season working collaboratively alongside our partner UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT), with significant strides made in conserving and maintaining two of their historic sites on the Antarctic Peninsula. Al Fastier, Trust Conservation Advisor, and Lizzie Meek, Trust Collections Conservation Manager, played pivotal roles in this endeavour, contributing their expertise to various projects aimed at safeguarding Antarctic heritage.
Antarctic Heritage Trust

2023/24 Summer Conservation Season – Ross Island

, , , , , ,
The Trust’s On-Ice Conservation team spent thirteen weeks in Antarctica this season, from early November until late January, undertaking an intensive digital data capture project, followed by the annual conservation programme at the historic Ross Island explorer bases of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and Sir Edmund Hillary.

You can conserve these incredible places

Each year our expert team of conservators travel to Antarctica to maintain and conserve these huts and the 20,000 artefacts left inside. This ongoing work ensures that the legacy of Antarctic exploration continues for generations to come. But we cannot do this work without help from people like you.

By making a gift to the Trust you can help conserve the legacy of Antarctic exploration. If you’re passionate about this work, consider becoming an Antarctic Explorer Member or leaving a gift in your Will.