THE ship's cabin in which Irish-born polar explorer Ernest Shackleton died is to be preserved by a Co Kildare museum.
Shackleton, who was born in Kilkea House in the county in 1874, famously led three expeditions to the Antarctic at the beginning of the 20th century.
He is most closely associated with the ill-fated vessel 'Endurance', which was crushed by ice in 1915, leading Shackleton to lead one of the most daring rescue missions in the history of exploration.
However, it was in the cabin of the 'Quest' that the explorer died of a heart attack in January 1922 while en route to the Antarctic again.
The vessel was eventually sold and taken apart, with the cabin ending up on a Norwegian farm until 1980 when it was given to a local museum in Saltdalen, where it was restored and put on display.
The cabin has now been purchased by the Athy Heritage Museum, which has been allocated a €5,000 grant for its conservation.
Announcing the funding, the Republic's Heritage Council described the cabin as being of "national and international significance".
The Athy project is among 197 heritage projects earmarked for funding under the 2015 Community-based Heritage Grants Scheme.
Other projects to receive a cash injection include the renewal of the original windows of Bantry House (€4000), a total of €2,000 for the conservation of the Irish Volunteers Cap of Revolutionary Austin Stack in Kerry County Museum and €5000 towards the creation of digital 3D model of Medieval Kilkenny.
* PRESERVED: The Quest, left, in which Irish-born polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, inset, died in 1922. The cabin in which Shackleton died has been purchased by the Athy Heritage Museum after previously been kept on a farm in Norway by the family of Ulf Bakke, above, for decades