SCOTTISH polar explorer, Craig Mathieson, has donated two bottles of the rare, limited edition Polar Explorer whisky plus other items, to raffle locally towards the raising of funds for the Polar Girls Cultural Exchange Project, involving Lochgelly High School pupils.

Gathered by Craig, the whisky contains drops of pure blue "millennia-old" iceberg water from the Sermilik Fjord in East Greenland and released by Bruichladdich distillery, the 12-year-old Port Charlotte single malt Islay whisky has a limited release of just 200 bottles.

The unique expression was devised when Edinburgh businessman Steve Thom gifted Craig with a single Sherry cask of heavily peated Port Charlotte single malt, produced at the Bruichladdich distillery on Islay in 2004.

The bottles come individually numbered and signed, within a wooden presentation box designed by Wolffe in Edinburgh.

The draw will take place at Lochgelly Cycle Park on Friday May at 4.30pm. Tickets are currently available from:

• Pauline’s Little Café, Allan Crescent, Dunfermline.

• The Railway Tavern, Cardenden.

• The Wee Tearoom, Main Street, Kingskettle.

The Polar Girls Cultural Exchange project is thus the vision of three of the young girls from the Lochgelly High School Polar Academy team.

On their return from their 2017 Arctic expedition to Greenland, they were inspired to explore the development of a pilot youth exchange project between girls from Lochgelly and girls from Tasiilaq in Greenland. As such they are regularly in contact with three of the Inuit girls they met whilst on their Arctic expedition and they have jointly drawn up a programme to explore each other’s local, historical and educational culture.

he girls are actively fundraising for their cultural exchange project this summer which is a sub-project of the wider Polar Academy programme, involving girls from Lochgelly High and three girls from the town of Tasiilaq, in Greenland, which is mainly an Inuit population.

The exchange will last for a maximum of seven days in each country.

The Polar Girls Exchange Project team, Carla Masterton, Hannah Reid and Lauren Scott, are piloting this project as ambassadors and hope to pass it on to the future Polar Academy teams, with the aim that this can be replicated as a yearly exchange project. If successful, it can be adopted Scotland wide, building closer links with Greenland communities.

The total cost of the project is £14,985 and to date the girls have raised over £5,000 from donations, grants and sponsorship.

Enthusiastically supporting the project is the chair of Cowdenbeath Area Committee Cllr Linda Erskine who said: "The Polar Academy experience has given these young girls a tremendous amount in gaining confidence and skills for them to develop this youth exchange programme and potential twinning between the two communities."