Shackleton's Whisky: The Bottles Found Under His Antarctic Hut

Before the crates came out, there was “the smell of whisky in the surrounding ice”. Beneath Shackleton’s Cape Royds hut in Antarctica, liquid could be heard when the icebound crates moved. Recovered in January 2010, one crate yielded eleven bottles, still wrapped in paper and straw. Three later travelled to Scotland for analysis and a recreation before returning to Antarctica in 2013. [4][2][9]

The expedition that left the whisky behind

The whisky belonged to Ernest Shackleton’s British Antarctic Nimrod Expedition of 1907 to 1909. Its base, the hut at Cape Royds on Ross Island, was built in February 1908. The same building later sheltered members of the Ross Sea party of his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 to 1917, but the bottles were a legacy of the earlier expedition. [1]

According to the trade reference ScotchWhisky.com, the expedition ordered 25 cases of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt in 1907, alongside brandy and port. The name on the whisky was Chas. Mackinlay & Co. Established as a wine merchant in Leith in 1815, the business had also been involved in building Glen Mhor distillery in Inverness in 1892. [6]

Shackleton turned back from his attempt on the South Pole in 1909, about 160 kilometres short of his goal. The spirits stayed at Cape Royds. Their eventual recovery brought the abandoned expedition supplies into the hands of conservators, whisky researchers and a blender intent on reconstructing the taste of the surviving whisky. [4][2]

Finding crates in the ice

The crates were found years before they could be freed. In February 2010, The Irish Times reported that restoration workers had discovered them beneath the floorboards in 2006, too deeply embedded in ice to dislodge. The Antarctic Heritage Trust dates their recovery to January 2010. A later release report gives 2007 as the discovery year, leaving that first date disputed between the accounts. [4][2][3]

Five crates lay beneath the hut: three containing Scotch whisky and two containing brandy. One brandy label read “Chas MacKinlay & Co”; another named “The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited Allandale”, an Australian distillery in the Hunter Valley. Scotch would command the attention, but it was only part of the cache. [4]

The clues described in the opening came from Antarctic Heritage Trust team leader Al Fastier. Before excavation, he reported the whisky scent in the ice and the sound of liquid when the crates moved. The containers were held fast, but their contents had not necessarily frozen solid. [4]

One crate was flown to New Zealand and thawed in a purpose-built environment and public gallery at Canterbury Museum. Inside were eleven bottles, still wrapped in paper and straw. The Antarctic Heritage Trust records both the surviving spirit and the packing that remained around the bottles. [2]

What the whisky analysis revealed

Three bottles made the journey to Scotland under a New Zealand Government permit, aboard the private jet of Whyte & Mackay’s then owner, Vijay Mallya. NBC News reported their journey in January 2011, describing the whisky as dating from 1896 or 1897. [2][5]

According to Popular Science, researchers carefully drew whisky through the bottles’ corks with syringes. These samples allowed them to examine the expedition’s whisky without uncorking the bottles. [9]

The Scotch Whisky Research Institute confirms that it carried out sensory and chemical analysis. The resulting paper, “Sensory and Chemical Analysis of ‘Shackleton’s’ Mackinlay Scotch Whisky”, appeared in the Journal of the Institute of Brewing in 2011. The findings here draw on published reporting and a trade summary of that paper, rather than a fresh examination of the full text. [7][8][9][10]

Less smoke than the reputation suggests

The reported strength was about 47% ABV, but the more striking finding concerned peat. Popular Science described the phenolic content as surprisingly low against the era’s reputation for heavily peated malt whisky. The trade summary characterised it as lightly peated, with peat likely originating in Orkney. Both descriptions report analytical interpretations, rather than tasting observations made for this article. [9][10]

These bottles challenge the familiar picture of Victorian Scotch as invariably heavily smoky. Their value is specific: they reveal something about the recovered Mackinlay whisky, not every whisky of its period. Here, surviving liquid allowed researchers to replace an assumption with observations of the whisky itself. [9][10]

The trade summary identified pot-still single malt consistent with Glen Mhor’s archives and reported maturation in first-fill American oak sherry casks. First-fill here means the casks’ first use for whisky after their previous contents. It also reported no haze and no major contamination from glass or cork, important findings for spirit recovered from beneath an Antarctic hut. [10]

Recreating the whisky, preserving the originals

In April 2011, Whyte & Mackay master blender Richard Paterson recreated the whisky as Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky. This was a new whisky intended to reproduce the recovered spirit. Samples had been withdrawn for analysis, but the Antarctic whisky was not transferred into the released bottles. [2][9]

A September 2011 release report put the recreation at 47.3% ABV, distinct from the original’s reported strength of about 47% ABV. The similar names make that distinction worth keeping: one was the recovered expedition whisky, the other a modern reconstruction. [3][9]

The same report described a recipe drawing on Glen Mhor and Dalmore, together with Longmorn, Benriach, Glenfarclas, Balblair and Pulteney. The component whiskies ranged from 8 to 30 years old and were married in sherry butts. Popular Science also named Jura among the components. [3][9]

Whyte & Mackay entered the story long after the expedition. ScotchWhisky.com dates its ownership of the Mackinlay brand from 1993; the expedition placed its order in 1907. Its work on the recreation belongs to this later chapter of the whisky’s history, not to the original supply of the expedition. [6][2]

A second edition, The Journey, followed. Disputed: the Antarctic Heritage Trust dates its release to late 2012, while ScotchWhisky.com gives 2013. According to the Trust, the two editions generated a substantial donation to its conservation work, linking the modern recreations back to the preservation of the expedition’s heritage. [2][6]

The return mattered as much as the recovery

The hut is Historic Site and Monument No. 15, within Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 157. The 2015 management plan for Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 157 allows artefacts of high historic value that cannot be conserved on site to be removed under permit for storage in a controlled environment until they can safely be returned to the area. [1]

In January 2013, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key returned the three original bottles to Antarctic Heritage Trust staff in Antarctica. Their journey to Scotland had been temporary. Back on the continent, they remained part of the expedition’s heritage: historic objects, not simply abandoned possessions available to take away. [2][1]

A short recovery timeline

Story record: paper, straw and surviving whisky

Eleven bottles inside an Antarctic crate. The expedition base at Cape Royds was built in February 1908, a date that marks the hut’s construction, not the founding of the Mackinlay business. The turning point came in January 2010, when conservators recovered the crates beneath the hut and made their contents available for conservation. Thawing one crate at Canterbury Museum revealed eleven bottles still wrapped in paper and straw. [1][2]

The 2015 Antarctic Treaty management plan records the hut’s construction; the Antarctic Heritage Trust account records the recovery, thawing and surviving packaging. Last checked: 5 November 2026.

Verdict badge

Documented: Eleven bottles emerged from the thawed crate still wrapped in paper and straw. The Antarctic Heritage Trust explicitly records both the bottle count and the surviving packaging.

The publication date of the Trust’s account is not established, so the earliest known source cannot reliably be identified. Source: Antarctic Heritage Trust, Shackleton’s Whisky, an undated account checked on 5 November 2026. Verdict last checked: 5 November 2026.

Where to go next

• A History of Whisky: From Early Distilling to Global Spirit: place the recovered whisky within the wider history.
• A Timeline of Whisky: From Early Distilling to Today: follow the broader chronology.
• The Whisky War: Hans Island and the Bottles Two Countries Swapped: explore a story about whisky and a land boundary.

Sources

1. Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. Measure 12 (2015), Management Plan for Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 157, Backdoor Bay, Cape Royds, Ross Island (including Historic Site and Monument No. 15). 2015. https://www.env.go.jp/nature/nankyoku/kankyohogo/database/jyouyaku/aspa/aspa_pdf_en/Measure12_ASPA157.pdf

2. New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust. Shackleton’s Whisky. Undated account, checked November 2026. https://nzaht.org/shackletons-whisky/

3. Planet Whiskies. Shackleton’s Whisky Captures The Festive Spirit. 27 September 2011. https://www.planetwhiskies.com/latest-whisky-news/mackinlays_shackletons_whisky_captures_the_festive_spirit_27th_september_2011.html

4. The Irish Times. Shackleton’s Antarctic spirits saved. 5 February 2010. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/shackleton-s-antarctic-spirits-saved-1.852845

5. NBC News. Century-old scotch returned from Antarctic trip. 17 January 2011. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna41122315

6. ScotchWhisky.com. Whiskypedia: Mackinlay’s. Undated trade reference, checked November 2026. https://scotchwhisky.com/whiskypedia/2129/mackinlay-s/

7. Scotch Whisky Research Institute. Timeline 2011. Entry dated 15 September 2011. https://www.swri.co.uk/timeline/2011-2

8. Pryde, James; Conner, John; Jack, Frances; Lancaster, Mark; Meek, Lizzie; Owen, Craig; Paterson, Richard; Steele, Gordon; Strang, Fiona; Woods, Jacqui. Sensory and Chemical Analysis of ‘Shackleton’s’ Mackinlay Scotch Whisky. Journal of the Institute of Brewing, 117(2), pages 156 to 165, 2011. Bibliographic details verified through Crossref metadata, not the paper’s full text. https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1002/j.2050-0416.2011.tb00455.x

9. Adams, Paul. Popular Science. How Scottish Scientists Re-Created a Hundred-Year-Old Whisky. 5 January 2012. https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-01/how-scottish-scientists-re-created-hundred-year-old-whisky/

10. Brossard, Patrick. Whisky-news.com. Shackleton whisky and science. 12 November 2011. https://www.whisky-news.com/En/reports/Shackleton_whiskyandscience.html

This desk-researched article uses the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing conservation records, contemporary reporting and secondary summaries of the scientific findings.

Last checked: November 2026