‘I’m set to manage the world’s southernmost museum in Antarctica’

A woman will be swapping the UK for deep snow, freezing conditions and penguins as neighbours in a new job managing a museum in Antarctica for five months.

Aoife McKenna, from Derby, will be living 9,000 miles from home in Port Lockroy, a British Antarctic base on Goudier Island, an island she said was slightly smaller than a football pitch.

The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) said the island was home to the world’s southernmost post office and museum, along with a colony of gentoo penguins.

Ms McKenna told the BBC she will set off on 2 November, and it will be about -10C when her and the team arrive, but will “warm up” to about 10C by the end of the season.

The 24-year-old said she would be part of a core team of five people – the other roles were a wildlife monitor, shop manager, base leader, and postmaster.

But she said they would all have to cover every job.

“So we are going to be helping with counting the penguins, we are all going to be stamping postcards,” she said.

She added the post office was “an integral part of Port Lockroy”.

“It is what a lot of people come to the site to do – they want to send a postcard from Antarctica,” she said.

UKAHT runs Port Lockroy – the UK’s first scientific base in Antarctica – and Ms McKenna said every year, open recruitment took place.

“The majority of people who do this job have never worked in Antarctica before,” she said.

“It is a little bit more accessible than most people think.”

She said tourists visited the continent on ships, which also brought supplies.

“So in Port Lockroy, people are able to visit us in small numbers at a time – come and see the museum, visit the gift shop, and send a postcard home,” she added.

She said she would be living in a structure like a Nissen hut – an Army structure – but had “been reassured it’s quite cosy”.

Ms McKenna, who previously worked in a heritage role on the Antarctic island of South Georgia, said she was really excited to go.

“It is the most amazing continent on Earth in my opinion,” she added.

Later in the season, conservation carpenters Jim Brearley-Ratcliffe, from the Peak District, and Graham Gillie will join them to restore historic buildings.