A heavy-lift crane-ship which worked in Dublin Port last month at an oil jetty berth as previously reported, is currently carrying out ferry infrastructure upgrade works in Scotland at Uig Harbour on the Isle of Skye, writes Jehan Ashmore.

On completion of duties in the Irish capital, Lara 1 proceeded into the Irish Sea and northward to the Scottish west coast island. On arrival at Uig Harbour, which is operated by The Highland Council, is where the ferry port is closed on a temporary basis for a second stage of redevelopment works until at least next month, on 11th December.

As above the Lara 1, formerly named the Mersey Mammoth, has been engaged in various works, among them the installation of replacement infrastructure at the ferry berth used by Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) on routes linking Lochmaddy, North Uist and Tarbert, on the Isle of Lewis and Harris.

The closure as such as affected routine CalMac operations, however alternative travel options across the Little Minch are in place to support customers who would normally travel to/from Uig, Tarbert and/or Lochmaddy. For a summary of current travel options, click here among them is the temporary Ullapool-Lochmaddy route operated by the Hebrides. 

Redevelopment works at Uig enables the replacement of life expired infrastructure with new interfaces to be installed at the harbour (for updates click here) to facilitate new ferries for CalMac services on the Little Minch. The two newbuilds are been built for Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) at the Cemre Marin Endustri shipyard in Turkey. The public will be asked to vote on the names for these two vessels next year and are expected to be delivered in June and October 2025.

In addition, the twins are also built to the same specification for ferries under construction at the same shipyard in Turkey (for Islay and Jura routes), but will have raised aft mooring decks to accommodate the higher pier heights at Uig, Tarbert and Lochmaddy.

As for the Islay and Jura newbuilds that will connect Kennecraig on the Mull of Kintyre, the delivery of Isle of Islay is expected in October 2024, with Loch Indaal expected in February 2025.

In a news update issued by Transport Scotland, an additional 'freight' ferry, the MV Arrow has been chartered to CalMac (Afloat adds from the Isle of Man Steam Packet) to assist island communities during planned works to Uig Harbour on the Isle of Skye.

The MV Arrow (which the Steam Packet acquired in recent months), will join the CalMac fleet as part of the revised programme, which was supported with additional funding from the Scottish Government and has cut the outage down from 24 weeks to 14 weeks.

Minister for Transport Jenny Gilruth said: “I’m pleased we have been able provide funding to charter the MV Arrow to assist during these vital works to upgrade Uig Harbour.

“The Scottish Government has already shown its commitment to supporting affected communities by funding the revised programme of works, and the addition of the MV Arrow is another measure to help reduce disruption to ferry travellers, freight customers and the delivery of supplies.

“We appreciate that any level of disruption is not welcome, but this project is vital to improving ferry services and the harbour experience in Uig in the longer term.”

CalMac (scroll down to 'News' section) are currently working on timetables for the MV Arrow and will confirm the details in due course.

Robbie Drummond, CalMac CEO, said: “We have been working closely with Transport Scotland to investigate the feasibility of leasing extra vessels and the addition of the MV Arrow is extremely welcome news.

“The Uig closure will be a challenging period for our customers and the chartering of MV Arrow will help provide much-needed resilience during the closure.”