Shackleton’s gift - A legacy of real spirit

IT is unlikely that today’s explorers – more tourists than pathfinders really – would include five crates of Scotch and more of brandy among their provisions.

Yet explorer and duff businessman Ernest Shackleton – born in Kilkea, Co Kildare, in February, 1874 – brought at least that to the Antarctic in 1909. The drink has been found embedded in ice. Though the expedition was a failure – they ran out of supplies, presumably because the Nimrod Expedition’s ships were so full of hooch – all was not lost.

The distillers who supplied Shackleton, described the find as “a gift from the heavens”. “If the contents can be analysed the blend may be replicated as the original recipe no longer exists,” they said.