Michael Palin has joined a race against time to save the Antarctic base of explorer Captain Scott before the centenary next year of the explorer's ill-fated journey to the South Pole.

A £3m campaign to restore the wooden hut, which has remained untouched since Scott and his team set out, faces a £300,000 shortfall that fundraisers are desperate to plug in time for the June anniversary.

Scott’s Hut, with its shelves of tinned food, bedding and clothing, offers a remarkable snapshot of the conditions faced by Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his team. Freezing temperatures have preserved the hut's contents, but increased snow in the Antarctic over recent years has put the fragile structure under threat.

Palin, the broadcaster who made a documentary of his own journey to the poles, has backed the campaign and is understood to have donated thousands of pounds to the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, which raises funds for the hut’s restoration.

“Scott's Hut is part of Britain's heritage, a unique reminder of the great age of exploration,” Palin said. “Preservation is not an option, it's an obligation.”

The government donated £250,000 in 2008 after bowing to public pressure to save the hut, which is looked after by the UK trust’s New Zealand counterpart.

But the campaign's biggest contribution has come from a mystery donor hidden behind a private trust called the February Foundation.

Last year, the charity offered to match donations from the public up to £1m, and it is believed to have donated a further £1m lump sum.

Richard Pierce-Saunderson, chief trustee, said the charity was inspired to get involved after Sir Edmund Hillary called for help on his final trip to Antarctica in 2007.

“We wanted to commemorate those British explorers who pushed the boundaries of physical and mental bravery to their limits, not only for their country but for the sake of exploration itself," Pierce-Saunderson said.

In January, a team of four conservators who have been living at the hut completed the first stage of its restoration, erecting cutting-edge steel wind generators beside it to prevent tonnes of snow and ice building up on the timber frame.

The final £300,000 will be spent preserving the 8,000 artefacts inside, including boots, Colman’s Mustard tins and photographic equipment.

Captain Scott, a Royal Navy officer and explorer, came second in the so-called “Race to the South Pole” behind the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Scott, 43, and his four teammates died in 1912 while trying to return to the hut.

The exact date of their deaths is unknown, but the last entry in Scott’s diary, on March 29, read: "Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of hardihood, endurance and courage ... which would have stirred the hearts of every Englishman.”

In December last year, a British team broke the record for the fastest unsupported journey to the South Pole on a trip to raise funds to save the hut.

Adam Wilton, 30, and Gavin Booth, 33, arrived after 45 days, joining a group of only 12 other Britons ever to reach the South Pole unassisted.

The campaign to save Scott’s Hut is also being backed by Sir David Attenborough, who described the hut as a "time-warp without parallel", and Sir Simon Jenkins, who called it one of “the most evocative historic buildings in the world.”

To donate, please go to: www.ukaht.org

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