Detaille Island Hut: conservation summary 2023-24

01/08/2024

Head of buildings and conservation Ruth Mullett talks us through the work we’ve been doing at the ‘hut that was frozen in time’.

Base W, Detaille Island, is a site full of stories.  

Some may know the remarkable story of escape from this island – the failed resupply of the base meant that the men were forced to evacuate at late notice. Taking what they could carry on their sledges, the results of their research and some personal possessions, they travelled over 30 miles (48km) across the sea ice to meet the waiting ship.  

Ruth at Detaille Island Hut (Credit: UKAHT/Lesley Johnston) 

What stands today is a testament to the determination of those men – a site rich in artefacts that feels like time has stood still. As such, we call it the ‘hut that was frozen in time.’

As the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust’s head of building and conservation, it’s my job to assemble a team of conservation experts and a work plan to work on our sites each year. This season, we sent teams to both Detaille Island and Port Lockroy for an ambitious programme of conservation works. It was my privilege to spend a month camping on Detaille Island with our team this season – learning from them, and learning more about the needs of our sites in the future. 

Ruth's carpentry team at Detaille Island Hut (Credit: UKAHT/Lesley Johnston) 

In 2017, the UKAHT commenced a strategy to extensively survey to better understand each site’s needs, and undertake emergency repairs needed to safeguard from water ingress or weather damage. Base W was the last of UKAHT’s sites to have such a survey and 2023-24 was the first conservation season to take place at Detaille Island in a decade.  

Our team of seven consisted of two carpenters, two object conservators, one photogrammetrist, one field ops manager, and myself. The work list was varied. Our carpenters worked predominantly to safeguard the emergency store (a small building set away from the main hut used to store emergency supplies in case of fire in the main base).

Ruth assesses the emergency store with our carpenters (Credit: UKAHT/Lesley Johnston) 

Our conservators worked to catalogue and record as many of the site’s thousands of artefacts as they could during their time on base, but also performed mould treatments. Our photogrammetrist – and the Trust’s full-time XR producer Lesley Johnston – took tens of thousands of photographs of the buildings which will be stitched together to produce a 3D model of the site. 

Our photogrammetrist, Lesley (Credit: UKAHT/Ruth Mullet) 

This will allow team members working on the building to familiarise themselves with it before deployment, and it will allow members of the public to explore the site from the comfort of their homes. Our field ops manager kept us safe – communicating with ships to make sure our water supplies were sufficient, and our tents were secure in case of storms. I worked to survey the site – collecting information from each room on the site on to inform future planning.  

Ruth and her colleagues at work (Credit: UKAHT/Lesley Johnston) 

This season was conceived in two parts. We are already looking ahead to 2025-26 when we plan to return to Base W. There are some big challenges ahead of us – most notably a large pool of water is sitting against the side of the base hut. Ice build-up beneath the hut is preventing its natural drainage point. This is not only contributing to some water ingress inside the building but it is also causing damage to the exterior cladding of the building. 

There are hundreds of food cans at Detaille (Credit: UKAHT/Lesley Johnston)  

Hundreds of food cans in the loft space of the building will also need sorting – with the removal of decayed contents and the conservation of as many tins as possible.  

It’s no mean feat, and our plans are already beginning in earnest. As one season ends, we already look ahead to the next, but we look forward to telling more of these remarkable stories going forward.

There is still work to be done at Detaille (Credit: UKAHT/Lesley Johnston)  

– Ruth Mullett, Head of Buildings and Conservation