The 'most remote' Post Office is on a isolated island surrounded by penguins

25 June 2024 , 10:06

1347     0

Port Lockroy is the location of the UK's most Southerly Post Office (Image: DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Britain's most Southerly public Post Office is located in Port Lockroy on the remote Goudier Island. The island, which is home to over a thousand penguins, is part of the British Antarctic Territory.

Port Lockroy is now considered a Historic Site and Monument and was founded on 11 February 1944 as part of Operation Tabarin, a secret wartime mission to secure territorial claims in Antarctica.

Following the end of the war in 1945 the base into an atmospheric science research base and communication hub, which it remained until January 1962. Then in 1995 it was designated as a Historic Site and Monument.

Since November 1996 the site of the former research base has been run as a museum, welcoming up to 18,000 visitors each season.

The island is home to over a thousand penguins (DEA/M.SANTINI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

With workers and some tourists visiting the island, it's no surprise that there's a Post Office there too. The Port Lockroy Post Office sends an estimated 70,000 cards each year, to over 100 countries.

Stormy gales wash walrus and seals ashore as urgent warnings for SNOW issued

Former Port Lockroy worker Sarah Auffret opened up about this unique Post Office when talking to Ends of the Earth. She said: "As you approach the Penguin Post Office, located on a tiny island off the Antarctic Peninsula, you are greeted by the 'roo roo roo' sound of 600 pairs of nesting gentoo penguins.

"Early in the season, you may have to climb up a snow staircase, or later in the season find your way up the guano-splattered rocks to access the building. It is certainly not your average trip to the Post Office!"

And explaining how the Post Office functions, she continued: "Sending a postcard costs one U.S. dollar, no matter the destination. The team frank the mail by hand – on a busy day there can be more than 1,000 postcards.

The former research base has now been turned into a museum (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

"Then it is bundled, weighed – almost 500 kg of mail is processed by the team each season – bagged, and transported to the Falklands by an expedition ship, weather and ice permitting.

"Every postcard has quite a journey before reaching its final destination. Once the bagged mail reaches the Falklands, the Stanley Post Office puts it on the weekly Royal Air Force plane to the UK, where it finally enters the regular postal service. The fastest a postcard can travel from Port Lockroy to Cambridge is just over two weeks.

"However, it often takes longer, as the mail may not leave us for a week or two after it is dropped in the box. What’s more, at the end of the season, no ships return to the Falklands, so if you visit Port Lockroy after mid-February, your mail will most likely overwinter in Antarctica!"

Isobel Pankhurst