Plan to mark expedition’s Scottish connection

THE centenary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s tragic journey to the South Pole is to be marked at the cottage on a Scottish hillside where the polar explorer planned his expedition.

Locals in Angus, including the Earl of Airlie, plan to put up a monument recalling his achievements beside Burnside House in Glen Prosen, to remind visitors of this Scottish connection to Capt Scott’s ill-fated trip to Antarctica.

Capt Scott’s friend and Antarctic companion Edward Wilson lived in the house while he was employed by the government to research grouse moors. Capt Scott would often visit Dr Wilson when he lived in the cottage, at the foot of Tulloch Hill. There the two men made their plans for the trip that ended in their deaths. Another visitor is reputed to have been playwright J M Barrie, who was brought up in nearby Kirriemuir.

A memorial fountain was erected in 1919 at the spot known locally as “Scott’s View”, but it was destroyed in a car accident in 1979.

TOM PETERKIN