ROUTES
OPERATED |
 Main
Crossings
Oban - Colonsay |
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Oban - Colonsay |
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Crossing Time: 2 hours 20 minutes |
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Regular Ships:
Lord
of the Isles / Isle
of Mull / Hebridean
Isles |
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ROUTE TIMELINE: |
Ships to Serve:
Pre-1975: Lochiel
1975 - 1988:
Columba
1989 - 1992:
Isle
of Mull / Claymore
1993 - 2000:
Isle
of Mull / Isle
of Arran
2001 - 2002:
Isle
of Mull / Hebridean
Isles
2003 - Present:
Isle
of Mull / Lord
of the Isles / Hebridean
Isles
Additional Ships:
Iona
/ Pioneer
/ Glen
Sannox / Clansman |
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Terminal Facilities: |
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Oban: 3 storey terminal building with ticket office, waiting area and toilets.
Two linkspans, one of which is undergoing redevelopment. Raised walkways
under construction to replace the older passenger loading gangway.
Large vehicle marshalling area.
Colonsay:
Pier and linkspan (dates over twenty years apart!) set out into the bay at
Scalasaig on Colonsay. Passenger gangway is located along the pier and
vehicle marshalling area in located adjacent to the linkspan.
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Route History: |
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Before Colonsay received its pier in the 1960s, the island was served by
mail boat and tender launch as there was nowhere suitable for the larger
vessel to berth. The Lochiel
served Colonsay from her base on the Kintyre peninsula. Her runs via Port
Askaig were extended to Colonsay every so often, although from 1975 the
Columba
assumed a general role and, in addition to her duties to Coll and Tiree,
she also served Colonsay from Oban, just over two hours away. This vessel
brought with her substantial car capacity and for the next thirteen years
she served the island as part of her busy routine. |
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Claymore returning to Kennacraig
via Colonsay |
Ferry services to Colonsay joined the late 20th Century in 1988 when
drive-through facilities were finally installed at the pier at Scalasaig.
The linkspan was to enable the new Mull ferry Isle of Mull to berth there. In addition to her main duties to
Craignure, the new Oban-based giant also sailed to Colonsay three times a
week. 1989 saw another vessel provide a second service to and from the
mainland. As part of her new commitments to Islay, the Claymore
started a new summer trend - a link from Kennacraig to Oban via Port
Askaig and Colonsay, travelling out in the morning and returning in the
afternoon and evening. This allowed residents of Colonsay a couple of
hours in Oban before the return journey. Of course this journey was not
required in the winter as the Mull ferry only provided a handful of
sailings to Craignure in the morning and late afternoon. The majority of
the afternoon was filled with a return sailing to Colonsay by the Isle of
Mull during the winter months.
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Things remained fairly constant for a number of years. The only real
change being that the Isle of Arran took over from the Claymore
in 1993, although the weekly sailing still took place. Things did not
really change until 2003. It was in the summer of that year that the
majority of services from Oban, on a variety of routes, experienced a
shake up. By this time the Islay ferry was Hebridean Isles and she carried on the tradition of linking Kennacraig and
Oban.
The major change was that there were now three large ferries were based
in Oban: Isle of Mull, Lord of the Isles and the 1998 built Clansman.
The latter tended to concentrate on the Outer Isles and Coll / Tiree
sailings while the smaller Lord of the Isles and Isle of Mull began sharing the Colonsay
service. |
Isle of Mull heading towards Oban
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Isle of Arran on a Wednesday run from Kennacraig |
Hebridean Isles in the Sound of Kerrera
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As a result of this new deployment among the major unites,
more sailings per week were offered and at more convenient times of the
day than the evenings as in previous years. During the winter season however the Mull ferry resumed sole Colonsay
duties. |
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Lord of the Isles returning from Colonsay
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Since this shake up of services in 2003 there has been little change. In
addition to the weekly summer sailings by Hebridean Isles, Colonsay now usually sees a ferry arriving at its pier five
or six times a week. Some of these sailings are straight return sailings
from Oban and others may be from Kennacraig, terminating at Colonsay, or
as part of a return trip from Oban to Port Askaig. With three ferries
based in Oban and two in summer at Kennacraig the services to this tiny
island have seen major improvements in terms of variety of service offered
and frequency of sailings. |
 Images from Ships of CalMac Collection |
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SoC
Links |
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To see a more detailed description of the islands and photos,
visit
Undiscovered Scotland and click on a place. |
