Dumfries Peter Pan house project secures land boost

The piece of land is between Moat Brae House and the nearby Dumfries Academy

A trust working to restore the house which helped to inspire JM Barrie to write Peter Pan is poised to secure a piece of land of "huge significance".

The riverside plot is linked to Moat Brae House in Dumfries where the author played as a child.

The land is owned by Dumfries and Galloway Council and runs alongside the River Nith behind Dumfries Academy.

The authority is set to transfer ownership to the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust for the nominal fee of £1.

The site connects the secondary school where Barrie was educated to the gardens of Moat Brae where he played pirate games with the children of the house.

He later revealed the setting inspired his early ideas for the plot and characters that became Peter Pan.

The Georgian townhouse was later used as a private hospital before being abandoned and allowed to decay.

It is now owned by the PPMBT which is spearheading a £4m scheme to restore and redevelop Moat Brae as Scotland's first Centre for Children's Literature.

The council says it has no use for the land but recognises its importance to the project.

The authority has provisionally agreed to transfer ownership of the site to the trust, although the deal is still subject to committee approval.