Rose Wildgoose is rightly proud of the impressive igloo she and friends and family built in snowy Princetown.

Rose, six, was joined by her brother Harry, nine, on Wednesday last week when they had to rebuild their snow house after older children gathered to destroy a first model the day before.

The igloo was built with help from neighbours, while the architect was their dad, former Royal Marine Matt using skills learned during cold weather survival and combat training in Norway – though it was Harry who started off the build with his trowel.

The house-proud children made finishing touches to the inside by adding a window, beds and snow pillows. First inside to give the icy creation an inspection was their dog Bonnie.

Their mother Aimee said: “I’m very proud of them, they really enjoyed the task and threw themselves into it. It’s a wonderful igloo and it’s such a shame they had to build it twice – but the second build was an improvement. Harry will be keeping en eye on the igloo from his bedroom window in case of a repeat of the vandalism.

“They both love playing in the snow and it’s great we live in such a lovely place where they can walk out into the countryside and have snow quite often.”

They learned their enthusiasm for ice houses when they helped their dad build a similar quinzee snow shelter – a Canadian version made by hollowing out a snow mound. This contrasts with an igloos which is made of blocks of hard snow.