The title might be somewhat misleading as nobody from the Isle of Arran will sort out Islay's ferry problems. However, the ferry that is named Isle of Arran will sail on the Islay route next week to bring some necessary relief amidst the current one and a half vessel service we have right now. The MV Isle of Arran will sail Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from Kennacraig to Islay next week. For the full schedule until Friday the 12th of August please visit the Calmac website

Calmac Ferry MV Isle of Arran

The Hebridean Isles, Islay's second ferry, is in dry dock undergoing repairs after it hit the pier in Kennacraig two weeks ago. In an earlier press release Calmac mentioned that these repairs would last around a week but apparently it seems to take at least a week longer. You wonder who's responsible for their planning? Continue reading....

When I wrote my blog post last week I wondered why the MV Finlaggan wasn't used as freight ferry during the night and it's great to see that Calmac is doing just that. In a press release Calmac writes: "To ease disruption on the route, CalMac has now familiarised a new crew to operate the MV Finlaggan and the vessel will run an overnight freight service between Islay and Kennacraig, as well as her normal daytime timetable. Large vehicles such as caravans and camper vans will also be moved on to the overnight sailing to free up space during the day."

CalMac's director of operations, Drew Collier, said: "We appreciate the inconvenience this ongoing disruption is causing and looked at all the options to address the issues the island is experiencing. This is a particularly busy week, with the Islay Show taking place on Thursday, so we need to use the available fleet resources we have at our disposal to meet demand. Unfortunately, this means moving the the MV Isle of Arran off her normal Arran route. We realise this is not ideal, but hope the community on Arran understand the reasons behind this decision and we appreciate their cooperation. We feel this is the best solution we have to meet the demands we are currently experiencing across the network."

Update 9th of August from Calmac
MV Hebridean Isles repairs are complete and the vessel will return to service today, Tuesday 9th of August. There are still some changes to the timetable, see this link.

Tag: ferry travel calmac