Uig Harbour Closure

Last updated: 15 December 2023

Temporary closure of Uig Harbour - 30 October to 21 December 2023

The planned opening of Highland Council's Uig Harbour, which was due to take place on 16 December has been delayed.

Berthing trials, which took place on 14 December 2023 highlighted an issue with new restraint bollards - and all parties, The Highland Council, RJ MacLeod, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) and Caledonian MacBrayne are working together on a planned solution to install an additional bollard which will allow us to resume ferry services.

Following this additional work, we expect to carry out further berthing trials on 21 December 2023, and should these be successful, we are planning for ferry services between Uig-Tarbert/Lochmaddy to resume on 22 December.

Please be assured that alternative travel options, outlined below, will remain in place during this period to limit disruption and support customers and communities in the lead up to the busy festive period. Current timetables and services up to 21 December are outlined below.

Our systems are currently being updated - thank you for your patience while we do this. We will directly contact customers who have bookings for travel between Uig-Lochmaddy/Tarbert between 16-21 December to provide support and alternative travel options.

While there was always a risk to the project timeline, we understand many of our service users will find this further delay disappointing. The team at Caledonian MacBrayne will continue to work closely with Highland Council, RJ Macleod and CMAL - while also being ready to support customers during this busy period.

Our dedicated web pages below are available to help you plan around the closure - it includes details on travel options (summarised below), information on reservations, retrospective refund process and shuttle buses.

Summary of alternative travel options

While Uig Harbour is closed for works by The Highland Council, the alternative travel options and service continuity plan will include:

One return sailing will operate each day between Ullapool-Lochmaddy, with an extended passage time of 4h 30m.
View the temporary Ullapool-Lochmaddy timetable.
Sailings between Lochboisdale-Mallaig/Oban will increase with one return sailing, six days per week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday) and two return sailings on a Saturday.
View the Lochboisdale-Mallaig/Oban timetable.
While there will be no service between Ullapool-Tarbert, Tarbert traffic will be redirected to Ullapool-Stornoway.
View the Ullapool-Stornoway timetable.
A contingency for Sound of Harris service remains in place.
The additional request sailing between Berneray-Leverburgh departing 10.35 from Berneray and 11.45 from Leverburgh will now not operate however the service from Tarbert-Lochmaddy remains in place. The latest details on the service betweenTarbert-Lochmaddy is available on our timetable page.
Shuttle buses will transport passengers between Tarbert-Stornoway/Uig-Ullapool where required. View the shuttle bus timetables.

Where to find more information to help you plan ahead

Dedicated web page

As mentioned above, our dedicated web page is available here to provide information on bookings, retrospective refund process, shuttle buses and alternative transport information - as well as answers to your questions in our FAQs below.

If you plan to travel - stay in touch

If you are planning to travel around this time on the alternative routes, we strongly advise you stay in touch with us, especially at the time of year, by checking our service status and information pages on our website, or via our @CalMac-Updates page on X (formerly Twitter) - these pages carry up to the minute details, meaning you'll be able to check all the latest travel information before you travel.

If you have any queries or questions, please email: littleminchupgrades@calmac.co.uk.

Uig Harbour Closure