In particular it restores and manages historic sites in the Antarctic from where, during the last hundred years, British explorers and scientists made many of their most significant journeys. The chairman of The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust is Dr John Heap. The huts in Antarctica from which Shackleton and Scott set out on their heroic attempts to reach the South Pole are living relics with immense emotional impact on all those who are fortunate enough to see them. It is important they be kept alive. The stories of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration in the early years of the last century belong to us all.
Background notes The symbolism of the Antarctic Tartan explained.
White represents the ice-covered continent, ice floes, and the edge of the Antarctic Ocean. Grey represents outcropping rocks, seals and birds. Yellow also represents penguin plumage and the summer midnight sun. Black and white together depict penguins and whales. Pale blue represents crevasses in the ice and shallow blue icy waters of the ice shelves, whilst dark midnight blue represents the deep Antarctic Ocean and the darkness of Antarctic winter.