World's oldest post office is on sale for £275,000

The Sanquhar post office in Scotland is a Guinness world record holder 

Sophie Gallagher
Tuesday 05 November 2019 17:42 GMT
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Ever fancied owning your own post office? Well now you can for the grand price of £275,000 as the world’s oldest working post shop – which has been operational for 307 years – goes on sale in Scotland.

Sanquhar Post Office in Dumfries and Galloway first opened in 1712, eight years before the second-oldest post office in Stockholm, Sweden.

Although the post office might catch the attention of savvy property owners looking for a residential buy – it comes with a three-bedroom cottage, courtyard and outbuildings – the current owners are hoping to pass it on to another postmaster.

Husband and wife Dr Manzoor Alam, 77, and Nazra Alam, 67, took over the business in 2015 but now want to retire together so have been forced to put it on the market.

However the couple don’t want the sale to mean the post office closes, because of its legacy and cultural value to the region.

Nazra Alam said: “I hope someone will come along and buy it and keep it going because this is Scotland’s heritage and more particularly Sanquhar’s.

“It’s part of the community, we offer full postal services, banking and we’ve got stationery and a gift section.

“It would be a shame to have to shut it down.”

The mother-of-two says that she has enjoyed “every moment” of running the shop with her family for the last four years.

“[It] has been a remarkable journey and I’ve enjoyed it, it’s a nice area and nice people and we have visitors from all over the world.”

According to the estate agent listing the property is made up of the post office, a cottage and several outbuildings which originally served as stables for the mail coach horses.

The post office is officially recognised by the Guinness World Records as the oldest one in operation. The second oldest, located in Sweden, opened in 1720 while the third, in Santiago, Chile, opened in 1772.

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The Post Office said in a statement that they were committed to keeping the venue open as a working post office for the nationwide network.

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