Posties

We have two posties in Kilchoan. Gillespie Cameron, above, has been the postie for nearly forty years, and comes from a family of posties: his father, who delivered all over the western end of this peninsula on a bicycle rather than in a smart red van, and his sister May who was, until recently, the relief postie.

Gillespie is an award-winning postie. In 2002, when one of his customers didn't come to the door as he usually did, Gillespie was sufficiently concerned to phone the community nurse, who came immediately and found the man in a state of collapse. Without Gillespie's prompt action he might have died. More details of the award are here - go to the bottom of that page and click on 'here' for more, in PDF, about Gillespie's award.

When May gave up as relief postie the job was taken by Mairi Hunter. Mairi, who runs a bed and breakfast business, details here, also comes from a family with deep roots in the area.

The postie's daily round starts at ten in the morning with collections from all the post boxes in the surrounding area and the post office at The Ferry Stores, the first stop being at Sanna: notice how the Sanna post box is aligned so its back is to the prevailing wind.

By midday the postie is up at the Kilmory turn, where he/she sits until the mail arrives, in another van, from the area sorting office at Acharacle. The mail is then sorted at The Ferry Stores before being delivered. The time the postie finishes - and it can be well into the evening - depends as much on how early or late the Acharacle van comes in as on the volume of mail.

At a time when national postal services face mounting criticism, Kilchoan is fortunate that the dedicated and caring service given by our two posties is in the very best tradition of Royal Mail.