Nine questions with museum manager Aoife McKenna

11/02/2025

As the end of the season approaches, Aoife McKenna answers a few questions about running one of the most unusual museums on Earth.

Aoife McKenna arrived at Port Lockroy in October to manage the museum. She has a background in museum curation and has previously worked at the South Georgia Museum, which sparked a love for Antarctic heritage.

With just a few weeks remaining at Port Lockroy, she took the time to answer a few questions about her life at one of the most improbable museums on the planet.

1. Tell us a little about Bransfield House

Bransfield House is the building that today contains the museum, post office and shop at Port Lockroy. It was first constructed in 1944 as part of Operation Tabarin when a group of men were sent to the Antarctic Peninsula to establish the first permanent British base in Antarctica.

There are nine rooms in Bransfield House: the bunkroom, the bar, the ionospherics room, the radio room, the kitchen, the base leader’s office, the workshop (including a small photographic dark room), the washroom and the generator shed. Each room contains artefacts from when the base was active and demonstrates to visitors how the men of Operation Tabarin used to live and work. 

The ionospherics room in Bransfield House (UKAHT/Aoife McKenna)

Visitors usually spend around 30 minutes in Bransfield House visiting the museum and shop. We can host up to 300 people per day on the island, but only 40 people are allowed to land at Port Lockroy at a time. 

2. What does a typical day look like?

A typical day at Port Lockroy will see two ship visits – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We work together as a team to operate the museum and shop and to welcome people onto the island. This means working behind the tills, answering visitor questions, ensuring people keep an appropriate distance from penguins, cleaning the museum and opening it up/closing it down each day. 

Aoife in the kitchen at Bransfield House (UKAHT/Aoife McKenna)

3. What is the most challenging part of your job at the museum?

Bransfield House, like our other historic sites, was constructed from wood and not designed to last long-term. Antarctica is of course a very hostile environment, especially during the winter – the building comes under a lot of strain from the heavy snow and intense wind. 

Port Lockroy received record snowfall in 2022/23 (UKAHT/Clare Ballantyne)

Throughout the season, we have had to deal with leaks in the roof and windows of Bransfield House. Water can be very damaging to historic artefacts, not to mention the damage it does to the structure of the building. Keeping the objects safe and finding solutions to the leaks with our conservation carpenter has definitely been a challenge this season. 

4. What is most rewarding?

The most rewarding thing about working at the museum at Port Lockroy is becoming part of the rich tapestry of history that runs through the site. Every team, since the first group of men in 1944, have left their mark on the island in some way, and it is lovely to be able to meet people who have visited or worked here before. 

The bar in Bransfield House (UKAHT/Aoife McKenna)

5. How does Port Lockroy compare to the museum on South Georgia?

Port Lockroy is a lot smaller. South Georgia Museum is located in Grytviken, one of the former whaling stations in the subantarctic. The history is therefore a lot more whaling-centric, as well as focusing on Ernest Shackleton who is buried at the cemetery there. Port Lockroy did see some whaling in the early 20th century but was not a designated whaling station, and so the history here is much more centred around the early work of the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey – the precursor to the British Antarctic Survey we have today. 

Aoife at South Georgia (Aoife McKenna)

6. What is the most popular room at the museum?

The most popular room in the museum is probably the bunkroom – I think people are surprised at how big it is! It’s actually much bigger than the bunkroom that we live in today, so the men of Operation Tabarin had a surprising amount of space to themselves on base. People are always interested or amused by the pin-up paintings on the walls – many of them have flaked away but are still recognisable as their celebrity counterparts! 

The bunkroom at Bransfield House (Anton Rodionov/Shutterstock)

7. What are visitors to the museum most surprised about? 

People are mostly just surprised that there is a museum in Antarctica at all! It is definitely the most unusual museum that any of them will probably ever visit. People are also always intrigued to discover that not much has changed in terms of Antarctic living since 1944. We may have internet now, but we’re still eating food out of tins and have no running water on the island!

Artefacts on display at Bransfield House (Anton Rodionov/Shutterstock)

8. What’s your favourite artefact and why? 

My favourite artefacts in the museum are the books that can be found in the bar room and the bunkroom. There are a variety of books in the ‘library’ compiled over the years that Bransfield House was an active base, and it is fun to look through them and see what the men were reading. 

(UKAHT/Aoife McKenna)

As a big reader myself, books were one of the few personal items that I brought to Port Lockroy with me. Likewise, as a big fan of Agatha Christie, I was pleased to see that I hadn’t been the first person to bring her work south! 

9. Is there a specific story behind one of the rooms that resonates with you?

I find the story of Elke Mackenzie a hugely interesting part of the history of Port Lockroy. Mackenzie, born Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, was a botanist who specialised in lichenology and identified many new lichens whilst working as part of Operation Tabarin. Mackenzie went on to travel the world and worked at both the National Museum of Canada and Harvard University, as well as returning to Antarctica to study marine algae. 

Elke Mackenzie, 1944 (BAS Archives)

In 1971, Mackenzie transitioned and renamed herself Elke. In one of her final publications, she added a thanks to ‘Miss Elke Mackenzie for technical and bibliographic assistance in the preparation of this paper’ – linking her true identity to her work in a less understanding time. 

Antarctic exploration in the early 20th century was a very male-dominated field, and because of anti-LGBT laws in the United Kingdom at the time, we do not know much about LGBT history in Antarctica. Elke Mackenzie’s story is a rare example of tangible LGBT history, and I am very proud to be able to share her story with visitors coming to Port Lockroy today.

– Aoife McKenna, Museum Manager, Port Lockroy