THERE are estimated to be more than 790 islands in Scotland, with 93 of them inhabited.

Why the number is estimated is anyone’s guess as it should be fairly straightforward to count them but that’s by the by.

Bizarrely there are also 22 places which used to be islands but aren’t any more due to things like silting of harbours.

Of these, four in the Ness estuary appear to have simply disappeared for reasons unknown. Nobody seems to have even sent out a search party either, which seems a shame.

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Most of the islands are pretty accessible but the ones in the more far-flung places are accessed only by a ferry.

This is ferry operator CalMac’s forte, ensuring millions of folk are transported safely from and to the islands from various points on the west coast mainland.

It is a lifeline service after all and island life would not exist without the big black, white and red vessels churning their way through rough seas on a daily basis.

However, it appears that the lifeline services are no longer that and are instead on life support judging by the latest winter timetable.

It is not so much a timetable but a series of random services on some days if islanders are lucky and are dependant on the availability of ships – the key part of any ferry operation.

At the outset, it is important to stress that it is not CalMac’s fault that they cannot run a fuller timetable.

Shocking decisions further up the food chain in the Government’s failed transport department has left them with a number of ageing vessels that are no longer fit for purpose.

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This has led CalMac publishing a new winter timetable after conceding that one of its largest vessels will not return before March.

The ageing MV Caledonian Isles was due to be deployed later this month after more than eight months on the sidelines.

But a series of new defects, uncovered after it was dry-docked for repairs on the eve of its return to the network, meant it had to be laid up again.

Now CalMac has accepted that the vessel will not return till the start of spring – its “worst-case” scenario – meaning a new winter schedule has had to be drawn up.

The company said that key requests from different communities on the west coast have been delivered in the revised plan.

But campaigners on Colonsay are battling once again to keep three lifeline ferries over winter.

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Over the last three years, initial winter timetable proposals for the island have included many weeks where the Monday service was withdrawn, leaving just two sailings a week.

In August it was announced that for up to 15 winter weeks, Colonsay’s Monday service would be withdrawn but CalMac then said it had managed to reinstate all of the sailings.

However, earlier this month CalMac began a deployment consultation, giving the community just 48 hours to respond.

It is a very hard job for the ferry operator to please everyone given the state of the fleet but to leave an island with just two services a week seems ridiculous, particularly as the services are “lifelines”.

Heads should roll for allowing a situation to develop that sees a ferry operator unable to function properly because they lack one vital commodity – ferries.