Description

A rarely seen trio of used-on-piece stamps from Gometra, featuring one stamp each from the 2015, 2017 and 2018 issues, cancelled with an “Isle of Gometra Post Office” handstamp.

About Gometra

Gometra is a 425-hectare island in Scotland's Inner Hebrides, owned since 1992 by millionaire environmental activist Roc Sandford. It is located west of Mull, and linked to the adjacent island of Ulva by a bridge.

Under Sandford's stewardship, the population of the island has grown so that there are now five habitable houses, and usually three or four resident households, including a combination of full-time occupants and holiday lets. However, the island remains (deliberately) off grid, without electricity, mains water, telephones, Internet, or facilities such as schools and doctors.

Operated by postmistress Rhoda Munro, the Gometra Post Office (Oifis a' Phuist) has existed since 2015, with the first local carriage stamps issued on 1 April that year. Subsequent issues have appeared in 2017, 2018, and most recently in 2022. 

Each issue comprises four denominations: 50p (postcard); £1 (letter); £3 (box of messages); and £5 (half cwt). Stamps are required for the outgoing carriage of letters, postcards, messages or freight from Gometra to Ulva Ferry - the hamlet on Mull from which the ferry to Ulva sails - as well as for the incoming carriage of messages and freight from Ulva Ferry to Gometra. The journey on foot from the ferry terminal on Ulva to Gometra - neither island has any vehicular access - is around eight miles. 

As is the case with other Scottish island posts, any outgoing mail destined for beyond the local post area - in this case Ulva Ferry - needs an appropriate Royal Mail stamp. The Royal Mail does provide a weekly incoming service for the carriage of letters and postcards from Ulva Ferry to Gometra.