CalMac’s Skye triangle service to restart after upgraded pier passes muster

21 December 2023

The Skye triangle ferry service will restart tomorrow (Friday) after a eight week outage.

But the first scheduled sailing from Tarbert has been cancelled as the vessel is in the wrong place.

MV Hebrides will pick up the service with a passenger-carrying run from Lochmaddy to Uig in the morning and then bed into her normal winter timetable.

A return trip to Harris takes place in the afternoon.

When ferry services restart, the vehicle marshalling area at Uig shall be in its ‘normal’ space. The new marshalling area will not open until January under a revised traffic management plan.

A fresh series of berthing trials were conducted to retest mooring bollards at the upgraded Uig pier last night (Wednesday), a day earlier than previously scheduled.

Sailings for Harris and Uist failed to resume last week as expected because the bollards did not function properly.

► Photos: Skye ferry harbour construction works

A new linkspan has been installed at Uig. Commissioning and load testing of the structure were completed earlier this month.

The Skye triangle ferry service shutdown reached two months, taking a fortnight longer than initially estimated.

All Tarbert sailings were cancelled for the outage period. Uist traffic was diverted via a longer temporary Lochmaddy - Ullapool route.

Averse weather was responsible of part of a hold-up in progressing the works. Plans to reopen Uig harbour at the beginning of last week were postponed by several days.

Highland Council's contractor, RJ McLeod, has been working extra hours on the project which saw the pier shut to ferry traffic for the second time this year to enact upgrade and strengthening works.

The works during the present closure included the removal of the temporary bridge, existing linkspan, dolphins, bank-seat and temporary piles, completion of the fenders and installation and commissioning of the new linkspan.