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Displaying items by tag: Hebridean Isles

West Scotland ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) has announced that one of its routes will be cancelled for the rest of the year.

In July, CalMac said its Ardrossan-Campbeltown seasonal service was due to return on 24 August.

In addition CalMac said in June, that its estimated that the (routine Islay serving) MV Hebridean Isles – became a (relief) ferry which sails the Clyde route – should be back in service around 27, July.

However, deadline after deadline has been missed and the Scottish government controlled CalMac has now said that the service will be cancelled for the remainder of the year.

The Ardrossan (Ayrshire)-Campbeltown (Argyll) route only runs in the summer timetable, and the MV Hebridean Isles will not be back in service in time for the end of the season.

CalMac in a statement said: “As a result of vessel deployments, and the ongoing issues with MV Hebridean Isles, this service will unfortunately be cancelled for the remainder of the summer period – we do apologise to our customers and the community for this outcome.

To read more from the statement, Border Telegraph reports and on other ferry operations on the Firth of Clyde and to Islay.

Another route to the Mull of Kintyre peninsula, Afloat adds albeit from Co. Antrim is a fast 'passenger' ferry boat operated by Kintyre Express on a summer service between Ballycastle and Campbeltown.

In addition the operator also serves a seasonal Ballycastle-Islay route through Port Ellen. 

Published in Ferry

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.