 Originally identified simply as "the Bluff", it was later named by Captain Scott after the wife of Royal Geographical Society former president Sir Clements Markham.Every expedition that followed Scott on this route after his pioneering journey (including Ernest Shackleton 1908, Scott himself 1911 and Shackleton's Ross Sea Party 1914-16) used Minna Bluff to position depots and as a critical marker to guide homeward journeys.Because of the state of the ice in its immediate vicinity, the polar route was established some 20 miles to its east, depots being laid on this route within sight of the Bluff.