Moat Brae Information

The Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust is creating a National Centre for Children's Literature and Storytelling in the 'enchanted land' where Peter Pan began. Due to open at the end of 2018, this £5.8m restoration and development project will see the Georgian House and Garden, where author JM Barrie played as a child, become an international visitor attraction providing year-round activity programme with Neverland Discovery Garden, shop, cafe and learning and education pavillion. JM Barrie spent the happiest 5 years of his life in Dumfries and it is the freedom to play and adventures in imagination he enjoyed here that is the inspiration for the creation of an enchanted land of children's stories that is due to open at the end of 2018. About PPMBT • The Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust (PPMBT) is creating a visitor attraction, at Moat Brae House in Dumfries, which is expected to host 45,000 visits a year contributing £1.3 million to the local economy. • J M Barrie played at Moat Brae when he was a pupil at the nearby Dumfries Academy in the 1870s and later described his time in Dumfries as ‘the happiest days of his life’ and the garden as “enchanted land to me - the genesis of that nefarious work – Peter Pan”. The Neverland Discovery Garden will have Peter Pan and Neverland-themed interactive features including: • A pirate ship • Wendy house • Mermaid’s Lagoon • Performance space • Tiger Lilly's camp … and much more. Moat Brae is expected to (directly) create more than a dozen new jobs while another 19 FTE jobs could be created indirectly as a result of the extra spending by visitors. “For our escapades in a certain Dumfries garden, which is enchanted land to me, were certainly the genesis of that nefarious work – Peter Pan” - J.M Barrie