SOUTH POLE INN

Established

Opened in 1917 by Tom Crean, the Annascaul-born Antarctic explorer, shortly after his return from his third and final expedition with Shackleton. Crean retired from the Royal Navy in 1920 and ran the bar with his wife Eileen until his death in 1938.

Earlier uses

Crean named the pub for the place he and Shackleton famously failed to reach.

Regulars

Tom Crean himself is the regular. Born in Annascaul in 1877, Crean joined the Royal Navy at 15 and went on to serve under Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on three Antarctic expeditions — including the *Endurance* expedition. The walls of the pub he founded are covered in photographs taken on those voyages by Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley.

Reputation

More museum than memorial: a working pub whose former proprietor is one of the great figures of Antarctic exploration. The village's other notable son — the Irish-American sculptor Jerome Connor — gets a purpose-built gallery on the same premises.