Joanna Lumley checks on Dumfries Peter Pan house progress
Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley has been in Dumfries to check on progress on a Scottish national centre for children's literature.
She is a patron of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust, the organisation behind the project. Work officially started earlier this year on the £5.7m conversion of the Georgian mansion. Ms Lumley said it was exciting to visit the place which inspired JM Barrie and see a dream "begin to come true". Barrie was born in Kirriemuir in Angus, but moved to Dumfries in 1873 as a teenager and was a regular visitor to the Moat Brae property. He credited it as helping to inspire his most famous work. Architects LDN and contractor Balfour Beatty guided Ms Lumley around the site on the banks of the River Nith. "It is so exciting to actually stand here in JM Barrie's 'enchanted land' and see our dreams for a Neverland Discovery Garden begin to come true," she said. It is hoped the new centre will be able to open to the public at the end of 2018.