Scotland Ferries

Below is a list of Scotland Ferries that run between the Scottish mainland and Scottish Islands with time and price guides.

Prices listed are only a guide as they may change throughout the year.

Some map links may show a road sea route, rather than the direct sea route.

Isle of Arran - Ardrossan. The large Car Ferry on this run, Caledonian Isles, travels between Ardrossan (Ayrshire) and Brodick (largest town on Arran) about every 3 hours with a crossing time of about 55 minutes. Price guide about £8 per passenger return and £32 per car return. Hot meals served on board. Although you can just turn up and wait in line, it is best to pre-book cars as can be fully booked in summer months.
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Isle of Arran - Kintyre Peninsular. This small car ferry travels between Lochranza on the northern tip of Arran to Clonaig or Tarbert on the Kintyre Peninsular about every hour and a half. No need to book, just wait in line. Price guide, about £6 per passenger return and £20 per car return.
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Isle of Barra - Oban. The large ferry, The Clansman, on the run between Oban and Castlebay (largest town on Barra) departs once a day with a crossing time of around 5 hours. Hot meals are served on board. Price guide about £30 per passenger and £139 per car.
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Belfast (Northern Ireland) - Cairnryan (Southwest Scotland). Travel by the one of two 30,000 ton superfast ferries bewteen Belfast & Cairnryan and enjoy a ferry crossing with a restaurant, spa, movies and executive lounge. Travel time 2 hours 15 minutes. Price guide about £223 return car + driver and £47 return foot passengers. The Stena website often lists cut price crossings under Special Offers, under half price. The Coach Tour to the northern coast of Ireland including Ballycastle, the Whiskey town of Bushmills, Rede Rope Bridge and Giants Causeway is exceptionally popular. Belfast City tour buses often meet the ferries at the port.
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Isle of Bute - Wemyss Bay. There are two ferries, MV Bute and MV Juno, that run all day between Wemyss Bay and Rothsey (largest town on Bute) about 18 times a day with a crossing time of around 35 minutes. Price guide about £7 per passenger and £23 per car. The mansion and estate Mount Stuart is one of the Islands top attractions.
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Isle of Cumbrae - Largs. Two small calmac ferries run between Largs and a slip on Cumbrae about 4 miles north of the Islands main town of Millport. A regular bus service transfers foot passengers from the slip to Millport. Crossing time of around 10 minutes. Price guide about £4 per passenger and £13 per car return. Cumbrae is well known for its cycle lane around the island and its many cycle hire shops, also, the interesting Cathedral of the Isles.
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Dunoon - Gourock. The small Calmac ferry runs between Dunoon on the north side of the Firth of Clyde and Gourock on the south side of the Firth of Clyde every 30 mins, crossing time 25 minutes. Price guide about £10 per passenger return, no cars.
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Isle of Islay - Kennacraig (Kintyre Peninsular) & Oban. The calmac ferries MV Hebridean Isles & MV Isle of Arran run between Kennacraig and the Isle of Islay & Oban 3 or 4 times a day with a crossing time from Kennacraig to Islay around 2 hours 20 minutes. Price guide from Kennacraig to Islay about £14 per passenger and £69 per car return.
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Larne (Northern Ireland) - Cairnryan (Southwest Scotland). Larne - Cairnryan on our Superferries will glide you over in only 105 minutes. Price guide about £250 per car plus driver return. About £54 per foot passenger. An excellent port for anyone wishing to drive along the scenic eastern and northern coasts of Northern Ireland to North Antrim with the most popular tourist attraction being the Giants Causeway.
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Larne (Northern Ireland) - Troon. There are no Ferries on this route just now.
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Isle of Lewis - Ullapool. The large calmac ferry MV Loch Seaforth runs between Stornoway (largest town on the the Isle of Lewis) & Ullapool 2 or 3 times a day with a crossing time of around 2 hours 50 minutes. Price guide about £20 per passenger and £105 per car return.
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Isle of Lismore - Oban. A small calmac ferry runs between Oban and Achnacroish which is on the Southeast side of the island a few miles south of Port Appin (largest town on Lismore). The ferry runs about 5 times a day with a crossing time of around 55 minutes. Price guide about £6 per passenger and £25 per car return.
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Isle of Mull - Oban. Three calmac ferries run between Oban and Craignure which is on the East side of Mull 20 miles south of Tobermory (largest town on Mull). The ferry runs about 7 times a day with a crossing time of around 45 minutes. Price guide about £8 per passenger and £28 per car return.
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Isle of Orkney - Aberdeen. The large Northlink ferries depart Aberdeen four days a week on the 6 hour voyage north to Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands. This ferry then departs Kirkwall 40 minutes later for an 8 hour voyage north to Lerwick on the Shetland Islands. Price guide about £20 per passenger and £80 per car each way between Kirkwall and Aberdeen.
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Isle of Orkney - Caithness. The Pentland Ferries offer the quickest way for passengers and their cars to travel between Caithness and Orkney, taking the most sheltered route to ensure comfort. Crossing from Gills Bay (Caithness northern Scotland) to St Margarets Hope ( 11 miles south of the largest town Kirkwall on the Orkney Isles) takes about one hour. Price guide about £32 per passenger return and £76 per car return.
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Isle of Orkney - John o Groats. Every day all summer from 1st May to 30th September. You have a choice of Day Tours of Orkney from John O' Groats or Inverness. Crossing from John O' Groats (Caithness northern Scotland) to Burwick ( 17 miles south of the largest town Kirkwall on the Orkney Isles) takes about 40 minutes. Price guide about £70 per passenger for a day tour that includes the ferry return and a coach tour of Orkney.
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Isle of Orkney - Scrabster. The large Northlink Ferry MV Hamnavoe departs Scrabster near Thurso (northern Scotland) 3 times a day on the 90 minute crossing to Stromness 16 miles west of Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands. Crossing time 90 minutes. Price guide about £40 per passenger and £124 per car return.
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Isle of Shetland - Aberdeen. The large Northlink ferries depart Aberdeen four days a week on the 6 hour voyage north to Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands. This ferry then departs Kirkwall 40 minutes later for an 8 hour voyage north to Lerwick on the Shetland Islands. Price guide about £70 per passenger and £246 per car return between Lerwick and Aberdeen.
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Isle of Skye - Mallaig. The medium sized Calmac ferry the MV Coruisk travels between Mallaig (west Highlands) and Armadale on the Island of Skye. Armadale is situated on the south side of Skye about 15 miles south of Portree (largest town on Skye). There are 8 crossings each way per day taking about 30 minutes. Price guide about £6 per passenger return and £20 per car return.
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Isle of Coll & Isle of Tiree - Oban. Calmac ferries make one round trip per day from Oban to Coll and Tiree. The crossing takes about 3 hours between Oban and Coll and a further 1 hour between Coll and Tiree. Price guide about £18 per passenger return and £95 per car return.
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Isles of Uist - Oban & Uig. Calmac ferries make 5 round trips per week between Oban and Lochboisdale on the Island of South Uist (Outer Hebrides). The trip takes about 5 hours. Price guide about £22 per passenger and £120 per car return. North Uist ferries run between Uig on the Isle of Sky and Lochmaddy on North Uist taking 1 hour 45 mins, £13 per passenger and £64 per car return.
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Zeebrugge (Belgium) - Rosyth (by Edinburgh) passenger service ended in 2010. The large ferries used to provide 3 crossing per week between Zeebrugge and Rosyth with the trip taking about 18 hours. Price guide was about £47 one way foot passenger with airline type seat or from £88 per cabin one way. Car prices with a cabin were from about £350 return. The freight ferry service ran until there was a fire on one of the ships in 2018. The small town of Zeebrugge is situated about 10 miles north of Bruges, the historic capital of West Flanders, Flanders being one of the three regions of Belgium. Bruges is one of Belgium's chief tourist attractions.
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Update

The opening of the Cairnryan Stena Ferry Terminal 21st November 2011 lead to the closure of the Ferry Terminal in Stranraer, ending a service between Stranraer and Belfast that began in 1862. Stranraer harbour has now been redeveloped.

The last three Stena ships on that route were withdrawn from service and replaced by the 2 sisters ships, Stena Superfast VII & VIII.

The ships taken out of service were the 7,000 ton Stena Caledonia, 9,000 ton Stena Navigator, and 19,000 ton Stena Voyager.

Stena Voyager was a jet engine powered 40 knot plus catamaran that would have been able to do the new crossing between Cairnryan & Belfast in well under 2 hours. This ship had been operated between Stranraer & Belfast from entering service in 1996.

The jet engines high fuel usage led to this ship being taken out of service after the service between Cairnryan and Belfast began in 2011, with it being scrapped in 2013.

Her sister ship Stena Discovery was sold in 2010 to a company in Venezuela, then scrapped in Turkey 2015.

A second sister ship Stena Explorer is now moored in Turkey.

These were the largest fast ferries in the world, the shipping equivalent of Concorde, a fantastic design, just too expensive to run.

Stena Superfast VII & VIII are now the largest ferries to have been operated from Scotland. They are 30,285 tons, 669 feet long, with 10 decks and can travel about 30 knots, crossing between Cairnryan and Belfast in about 2 hours 15 minutes. They were originally built for the Estonian ferry company Tallink in 2001 for the route between Tallinn (Estonia), Helsinki (Finland) & Rostock (Germany). These ships are ice class 1A Super that allows them to operate in extreme ice conditions. Hopefully they will not be encountering any ice in the Irish Sea.

The new ships have onboard facilities such as free WiFi, free movies, restaurant and exclusive Stena Plus Lounge. You can also relax in their Nordic Spa, with a jacuzzi & sauna. Their POD lounge is an interactive zone with all the latest in technology from iPads to Xboxes.

The previous largest ferries operating out of Scotland were on the run between Rosyth and Zeebrugge, these included 2 superfast ferries at about 30,000 tons, then from 2009, the Scottish Viking at 27,000 tons. Scottish Viking was replaced in 2010 by an 11,000 ton freight only ferry named Tor Finlandia, with that service ending in 2018 after a fire on the ship.

The largest P&O ferries operating between Cairnryan and Larne/ Ireland are about 21,000 tons. The next largest ferry operating out of Scotland is the Hrossey at 11,700 tons, traveling between Aberdeen, Orkney and Shetland Isles.

The largest ferries running to the Scottish western Islands are the 8,680 ton Loch Seaforth running between Ullapool in Northwest Scotland and Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, and the 5,200 ton Caledonian Isles traveling between Ardrossan and the Isle of Arran.

The largest ferry operating out of the UK is the P&O Pride of Rotterdam at about 60,000 tons, operated between Hull and Rotterdam.