A soon-to-be-retired CalMac ferry has made its last visit to the island she has served for more than two decades.
The MV Hebridean Isles completed its final scheduled crossing to Islay on Wednesday, ending a route the ship has plied since 2001.
The ferry, due to be scrapped next month, has been temporarily redeployed to the busy Arran route as the network creaks under the strain of yet another breakdown.
MV Hebridean Isles will start sailing to Brodick on the island from Thursday in place of the main Arran ferry MV Caledonian Isles, which had been due to return this week after eight months of repairs,
However, a new gearbox fault was detected on Sunday, postponing the vessel’s return.
Ferry users can currently only travel from Arran to the mainland via Troon on a chartered catamaran, or on a small ferry to Claonaig on the Kintyre peninsula.
MV Hebridean Isles, launched 39 years ago, is being retired because of the amount of work required to extend its service life any further.
It will sail from Troon on Thursday and Friday because high winds are forecast, but will operate out of Ardrossan once the weather conditions ease.
MV Lord of the Isles will provide backfill on the Islay route. Sailings to Lochboisdale on South Uist will be cancelled as a result.
A CalMac spokeswoman told the BBC: "Cancelling any sailing is always a last resort and we apologise to the South Uist community for the disruption that this will cause."
The ferry operator said it would try to restore the Lochboisdale service as soon as possible.
READ MORE:
- Fresh fuel fiasco hits long-awaited Ferguson Marine ferries
- First Minister says fiasco ferry fuel delay ‘a matter of great regret’
MV Caledonian Isles has been out of action since February when annual maintenance inspections revealed serious corrosion.
All of its engines had to be removed while the damaged steelwork was replaced at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Merseyside.
It had just returned to Scotland and had completed berthing trials on Sunday when metal fragments were discovered in a filter in the port gearbox.
The ferry is now expected to be out of action for at least a week while investigation and repair work takes place.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel