The Caledonian 'Isle of Lewis' ferry sailing through the Sound of Mull on its way top Oban in Argyll and Bute. SCO 11,000.
MV Isle of Lewis was built by Ferguson Shipbuilders in Port Glasgow on the Clyde and entered service in July 1995. At present she is the largest ship ever built by Ferguson's. Her crossing time of around 2 hours and 45 minutes improved upon that of her predecessor, MV Suilven, by at least 45 minutes. In June 2015, in order to assess where her long-term deployment might bring her, MV Isle of Lewis undertook a tour of major terminals for berthing trials, with varied results. She called at Lochmaddy, Castlebay, Oban, Craignure, Brodick, Ardrossan, Troon, Campbeltown, and Tarbert between 4 and 9 June. CalMac has since stated that no decision as to her future employment has been made. Major work would be required to her stern ramp, to have it off-set to starboard instead of port, in order for her to work on routes such as Mull and Arran. These adjustments would have no potential impact on her returning to Stornoway for relief work, as both Stornoway and Ullapool harbours now possess full-width linkspans. In September 2015, it was announced that Isle of Lewis will take on the role of Oban-Castlebay vessel (commencing summer timetable 2016) thus allowing MV Lord of the Isles to commence daily return sailings between Lochboisdale and Mallaig. In March 2016, Isle of Lewis began a new phase of her life when she began serving Oban and Castlebay, Barra. This allowed MV Lord of the Isles to commence a daily return service between Lochboisdale and Mallaig, thus ending South Uist's direct link to Oban. These summer arrangements, announced by Transport Scotland, are likely to be a stop-gap until the new ferries for Arran and Uig are due in service in 2018. On her first official day on the Barra service, Isle of Lewis completed all of her sailings in spite of an amber alert of strong winds and swell. To date, Isle of Lewis has only served three of CalMac's main routes; Stornoway to Ullapool (for which she was built), the Uig, Lochmaddy & Tarbert triangle, and Oban to Ca
Size: 5920px × 4132px
Location: Sound of Mull, Argyll and Bute. Scotland. UK.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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