This article appears as part of the Scotland's Ferries newsletter.

One of Scotland's oldest ferries is set to be out of action for at least over a month as new concerns about the resilience of Scotland's current ferry fleet deepen.

The 33-year-old ferry MV Loch Fyne which has been serving the popular tourist island of Great Cumbrae in the wake of a 'chaotic' series of breakdowns was put out of action on July 29 after damaging a propulsion unit and ferry users have been told that it is not repairable in the short term.

The Herald has been told that the unit will take about four weeks to rebuild, but is contingent on the arrival of spare parts. And they are not expected till this week at the earliest.

It comes as another Cumbrae ferry that has been helping out on the island and is 23 years past its 'sell-by date' became the seventh to break down in a matter of days.

CalMac have already had to put off repairs to the ramp of another of the fleet's oldies, MV Loch Tarbert, which has been one of the ferries drafted in to support the island, after cracks were identified.

Users were hit with queues of three hours at Largs to the popular tourist island of Great Cumbrae on Tuesday in the latest wave of breakdowns to hit services to and from islands off the west coast of Scotland.

The loss of the 48-year-old MV Isle of Cumbrae meant the already depleted service to Great Cumbrae and Millport was cut even further and at one point relying on one vessel.


Also put out of action on Monday was 35-year-old MV Lord of the Isles after it was found that the main engine needed repairs meaning services cancelled to and from South Uist, which has been among the worst affected by service cuts and led to major protests on the island last summer.

On Tuesday, all sailings to and from the island's main port Lochboisdale were suspended with an ongoing issue with the stabiliser system a factor along with an adverse weather forecast.

The seven that have broken down in the past week are on top of two MV Caledonian Isles and Mv Loch Shira that have been out of action long-term.

Repairs to the Cumbrae ferry's ramp was being carried out on Monday and was continuing on Tuesday before it was due to go back into service.

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Meanwhile services to and from Tobermory on the Isle of Mull have become passenger only from Saturday till Friday - as state-owned CalMac has to rely on a specially chartered emergency vessel.

The problems with MV Loch Tarbert has meant it has had to be replaced by 38-year-old MV Loch Linnhe on the service to Tobermory. But MV Loch Linnhe was departing for an annual overhaul on Saturday.

While users on the Great Cumbrae have been appealing for better services because of breakdowns, the service to Millport on Cumbrae has had to rely on the oldest ferry in the fleet.

Seventeen-year-old MV Loch Shira, which has been running services to and from Cumbrae has been sidelined for four months but was finally expected back on Wednesday.

CalMac had been forced to remove Loch Shira from one of its busiest routes on April 5 due to it being damaged by heavy vehicles and was originally expected to be sidelined till mid June at the earliest.

Isle of Cumbrae can take 18 cars - but that is half the number that the normal vessel Loch Shira could accommodate, meaning a drastic cut in capacity.

Users have been told that repairs to MV Loch Tarbert will begin after the return of Loch Shira.


Meanwhile, MV Caledonian Isles, one of Scotland's oldest and biggest ferries, remains sidelined until at least late August after CalMac was landed with a £5m repair bill over rust.

The ferry operator had warned in February of disruption across the Clyde and Hebrides network as a result of steelwork issues with the 31-year-old MV Caledonian Isles which serves on the Arran route.

It has been out of action since going for an overhaul at the start of January and it had been hoped in the last update that it would be back by July to help with the busy summer period.

The continuing issues with the ageing fleet have meant that the summer only service from Ardrossan to Campbeltown was scrapped for a second year.

The Campbeltown summer service never started last year as it became a casualty of further breakdowns.

One ferry user group official said ministers were "letting everyone down" by refusing to act quickly to deal with the problems.

"We are seeing yet another ferry past its working life out for what will be at least over a month.

"This is the result of chronic underinvestment in our ferries and it is appreciated that ferries are in the pipeline for the future. But these breakdowns are killing island trade and morale. It is time this was put a stop to."

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Some 18 of CalMac's 31 working ferries that were in service in 2021 and deployed across Scotland are now over 25 years old.

MV Isle of Arran which is among those that have hit problems in the past week usually serves as the second Arran ferry in the summer. It is second only to Isle of Cumbrae in a list of CalMac's oldest ferries.

The others that are over 25 years old are Hebridean Isles (39) Loch Linnhe (38), Loch Riddon (38) Loch Striven (33), Loch Ranza (37), Isle of Mull (36), Lord of the Isles (35), Loch Dunvegan (33), Loch Fyne (33) Loch Buie (32), Loch Tarbert (32) Caledonian Isles (31), Isle of Lewis (29) and Loch Bhrusda, which was completed in May 1996.

After 1973, when the Caledonian Steam Packet Co. acquired most of the ferries and routes and began joint Clyde and West Highland operations under the new name of Caledonian MacBrayne, the official expected life of a ferry had been 20 years.

That is until 2002, three years after the 1999 devolution when the then Scottish Government-owned Caledonian MacBrayne which then controlled the fleet and procured vessels, extended the 'working life' from 20 years to 25 years.

Scottish Government-owned ferry owners and procurers Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd which took control of the ownership of the ferry network and the purchase of new vessels in 2006, has since moved the 'expected useful life' from up to a maximum of 25 years to 35 years.

New ferries Glen Sannox and sister ship Glen Rosa being built at state-owned Ferguson Marine in Inverclyde, which were due online in the first half of 2018, with both now due to serve Arran, are at least six years late, with costs expected to be quadruple the original £97m contract.

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A CalMac spokeswoman said: “Several of our services have been operating under challenging circumstances due to various issues and increased demand across our fleet. Our crews and staff are doing everything they can to support communities during this time.

“Looking ahead, we will soon welcome six major new vessels to the service, which will allow us to improve resilience. Two of these vessels are due to join our fleet later this year, and until then we will do all we can to provide island communities with a reliable service.”

Transport Scotland said: “We recognise the impact that delays and disruption have regrettably had on our island communities and this government is committed to investing in our ferry services. That is why delivering six new major vessels to serve Scotland’s ferry network by 2026 is a priority for this government. We have also started the procurement process for seven new smaller vessels as part of phase one of the Small Vessel Replacement Plan.

“We continue to work with operators and CMAL [the state-owned ferry and ports owner Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited] to improve resilience across our networks.”