But after 34 years of visiting Bute, and 18 months of living here permanently, the O'Sullivans are happy to admit that it was something they didn't do purely so they could earn their daily crust.

"We've retired now," Pat told us as we paid the new owners a visit this week, "and we just thought the village deserved to get its shop back.

"So we thought we'd take the opportunity to buy the post office and give Donnie MacLeod a chance to retire.

"I suppose it is altruistic in a way, although we are conscious of the demands it will put on our time - but we were in a position to buy the place, and there has been such a big turnaround in the Port in recent years that we felt the village both deserves and needs its shop."

Note the use there of the S word - and it's already clear that the O'Sullivans don't see themselves as custodians merely of the village post office. They've already brought the sale of newspapers back to the Port for the first time since February, to much success - on the day of our visit, all that was left just before lunchtime was one copy each of the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express - and they've both spent a week at Matthew Algie's coffee school in Glasgow to learn the art of brewing and selling organic, triple-certified quality coffee.

Janet is the official sub-postmistress: indeed, when we called in, she was receiving training from John Fraser, a field support adviser with the Royal Mail, in the various intricate details involved in running a post office.

And while she and Pat may only have lived on Bute for a year and a half, Janet can trace her family links on Bute back rather further than most - Bute Sons and Daughters have helped put a shape on her family tree all the way back to 1630.

She's also the latest in a long tradition of female Port Bannatyne postmasters, or postmistresses; the first five occupants of the post, stretching back to the early years of the 19th century, were all female. And there's history on the shelves in the 21st century, too, in the shape of sales of framed old postcards of the village as it used to look in bygone days.

More practically, there's also an ATM in the shop, while villagers can also buy credit for their meters at home outwith Post Office hours; newspapers will be sold seven days a week, while the shop opens at eight o'clock during the week for the Port's early birds.

In the meantime, though, while the O'Sullivans are full of plans for the shop, there's an awful lot to learn about simply running a post office. As Pat admitted in his parting words: "We are hoping to expand in time, but we're just getting our heads round the main bits first."

* Port Bannatyne isn't the only island post office with new faces behind the counter. Our search for colourful costumes on Halloween took us to the one remaining Rothesay post office, on the corner of Albert Place and Watergate, where we found the terrifying trio of Richard, Carol and Francesca Harding ready and waiting to stamp and scare at the same time.

The Hardings took over the business on July 23, coming to Bute from Doncaster in south Yorkshire, where Richard was a prison manager and Carol an accounts assistant.

Like the O'Sullivans at Port Bannatyne, the Hardings also have Bute family links - Carol's sister, Patsy Wallace, lives on the island, and her family were regular holiday visitors during their childhood.

Until their permanent arrival on Bute the Hardings had no experience behind a post office counter, though having long had a hankering to move to the area the business's arrival on the market presented them with the ideal opportunity.

Eldest daughter Francesca is part of the team at the Watergate facility, while the couple's other daughters, Faith and Yasmine, are pupils at Rothesay Primary and the Academy respectively.

Said Richard: "It's been excellent so far, really good fun. We all want to say a big thank you to our customers - they've been brilliant with us."

See also:

All change for Bute's post offices - The Buteman, Feb 21, 2008
Post Office closure plans for Argyll and Bute (PDF file)

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