It was a little over a month ago, the 22nd of June to be precise, that Calmac announced the problems with the Clansman Ferry and the subsequent one ferry timetable. This situation lasted more than a month and will finally end this weekend. Today Calmac sent out the following information:

The MV Hebridean Isles will be released from Oban this afternoon, after completion of the Tiree service and will return to our area by early evening. As from tomorrow we will be in a position to operate our normal two vessel timetable with some slight tweaking as we have already committed ourselves to a revised timetable over Saturday and Sunday - which we think is only right that we also honour. Basically we will be operating a few additional sailings over the weekend.

Please find undernoted timetable which will operate on Saturday 31 July and Sunday 1 August:

Saturday 31 July
Depart Kennacraig: 0130 (additional), 0700, 0945, 1300 and 1800
Depart Islay: 0400 from PA (additional - but replaces 0700 from PA), 0945 from PE, 1530 from PA, 1800 from PE and 2030 from PE (additional)

Sunday 1 August
Depart Kennacraig: 0700 (additional), 0900, 1300 and 1800
Depart Islay: 0945 from PE, 1250 from PE, 1530 from PA and 2030 from PE (additional)

Monday 2 August: Normal two vessel timetable will operate

Tag: ferry calmac travel

Calmac announced this afternoon that they expect the MV Clansman to return to the Oban area and her service some time over the weekend. Until she is back in Oban and the MV Hebridean Isles is released, Calmac cannot say for sure at this time what day or sailing exactly the Islay service will be completeley back to normal. I can recommend to keep an eye out on the service status page on the Calmac website for the latest info. As soon as Calmac has more detailed information I will post an update on the blog.

Tag: travel ferry calmac

Islay hotelier and choir supporter Grahame Allison, of the island’s Port Charlotte Hotel, is holding a dinner on Saturday 21 August to raise funds for the Islay Junior Gaelic Choir to take part in this year’s Mod in October. The Mod is Scotland’s annual festival of Gaelic culture with international groups and individuals competing for medals in musical and literary categories. This year’s event is being held in Caithness in the far north of Scotland. At the dinner there will also be an auction of older and rarer bottles of whisky from the island’s distilleries. This will be run by Andy Bell, whisky specialist at McTear’s Auctioneers and Scotland’s leading whisky auction house.

Price of the 3 course dinner is £75 per person, excluding wine but it does include a tasting of some rare whiskies afterwards. These include the Laphroaig Cairdeas, bottled especially for the 2008 whisky festival and a rare Port Ellen with a Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain both over 30 years old to be confirmed. A great way to spend part of a weekend or longer stay on Islay and help the island’s young people in the Choir achieve their ambition to compete. It promises to be an exciting menu created by head chef Ranga. The hotel still has some rooms left for that period but there is other good accommodation nearby. You can either contact the hotel on ++ 44 (0) 1496 850360 or on info@portcharlottehotel.co.uk. Alternatively, for help with transport and accommodation contact Caroline Dewar of Whisky with Confidence on info@whisky-tours.com. The restaurant holds only 40 people so don’t delay. For those who cannot come to Islay but would like to make a donation to help the Choir, please contact the hotel on isabelle@portcharlottehotel.co.uk for information on how to donate funds before 21 August. Every little helps and is much appreciated.

Tag: choir dinner whisky charity

The planned return of the MV Clansman ferry to the west of Scotland has been postponed again. Earlier Calmac mentioned that the Clansman would return on the 25th of July. There seem to be further problems with the engine rebuild and as long as the Clansman doesn't come back into service Islay has to deal with the current one ferry timetable. Although informal contacts release some information every now and then the official Calmac website only mentiones "technical problems". It remains a mystery to me why a publicly funded company such as Calmac is so secretive about the nature of these "technical problems". And isn't it time that Calmac makes sure that there is a standby ferry, and crew, for the "Lifeline services" they provide in the west of Scotland?

In the meanwhile the effects of the continuing one ferry timetable become painfully clear in an article in the Ileach: "Paul and Joan Graham of An Taigh Osda in Bruichladdich have been very critical of Caledonian MacBrayne’s handling of the Islay ferry service during the period that the island has been reduced to a single ferry service. Paul, who is also chairman of the Islay and Jura Tourism and Marketing Group, says that his own business has been badly affected by the disruption, and that he is contacted daily by his members to complain, particularly those who run bed and breakfast establishments. Paul told the Ileach "It seems that it is the bed and breakfast sector that has been worst hit. Self catering customers have been able to adjust their schedules, although many leave early, whereas B&Bs are seeing lots of cancellations. Turnover in our own business is down by around £5,500 and the primary cause is the unacceptable level of disruption to the ferry service. The level of information being offered to travellers is very poor - CalMac’s customers are not being told of ferry cancellations - particularly with regard to the Islay/Colonsay run." Graeme Allison of the Port Charlotte Hotel agreed. He said "The island is quiet. Peak season has not yet arrived for us. We have seen six cancellations that are directly due to the lack of a ferry to Colonsay. I think it is the lack of this ferry that has affected us the most." Continue reading.....

I had planned to write about the charity run last night but I had to change my plans, hence tonights post. A couple of days ago I found the blog of Jane Talbot, who is determined to raise £100k to support the charity "Help For Heroes", quite a challenge if you ask me. Before I go into the details of the run here is some more information about the charity Jane is running for: "Help for Heroes was founded by Bryn and Emma Parry in October 2007 out of a desire to help the wounded Servicemen and women returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. The message of the charity is simple: We are strictly non political and non critical; we simply want to help. We believe that anyone who volunteers to serve in time of war, knowing that they may risk all, is a hero. These are ordinary people doing extraordinary things and some of them are living with the consequences of their service for life. We may not be able to prevent our soldiers from being wounded, but together we can help them get better."

Back to the run now. As you can read on Jane's blog she will run 200 miles on both Islay and Jura and she will start tomorrow, Monday the 26th of July. Her route is as follows: Day 1 - Port Ellen to Kintour and back (15.6 miles), Day 2 - Port Ellen, Lower Killeyan, Kintra, Bowmore (26.3 miles), Day 3 - Bowmore, Portnahaven, Kilchiaran, Port Charlotte (26.8 miles), Day 4 - Port Charlotte, Kilchoman, Ballinaby, Sanaigmore, Ardnave (24.5 miles), Day 5 - Ardnave, Bridgend, Port Askaig (18miles), Day 6 - (Jura) Feolin Ferry, Lussagiven (23.5 miles), Day 7 - (Jura) Lussagiven, Kinuachdrachd, Lussagiven (19.4 miles), Day 8 - Lussagiven, Port Feolin, Port Askaig (23.5 miles), Day 9 - Port Askaig, Bridgend, Leonin, Port Ellen (18.6 miles). This gives an average daily mileage of 21.5 miles. If you want to support Jane and make a donation you can do so at www.justgiving.com/janetalbot. Good luck Jane if you read this!

Tag: charity

In April the Ileach published an article titled "Hallelujah" to celebrate the fact that the new Islay Ferry, MV Finlaggan, will also visit Port Ellen and not just Port Askaig as was foreseen earlier. For that to happen the pier at Port Ellen needs a reconstruction which was originally planned to start in the autumn of 2010. CMAL however issued a press release which stated that the works will be delayed until the spring of 2011: "Following further development of the plans for improvements to Port Ellen & Kennacraig harbours, Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) will host public meetings w/c 9 August 2010 at both Port Ellen and Tarbert to provide an update on the projects which will deliver improved berthing facilities to accommodate the new vessel MV Finlaggan. Continue reading....

Very important information for ferry travellers to Islay. Due to the one ferry timetable things have changed with the online booking system on the Calmac website. That's why Calmac sent out the information below which is extremely important for people who are travelling to Islay in the next few weeks and haven't booked their ferry yet. Make sure to carefully read the instructions below to avoid any disappointments.

Calmac: It appears that our online booking system has caused some confusion and subsequent concern to some of you. This e-mail is hopefully to explain the situation, and to assure you that the changes we have made have been done to make the best of the current difficulties and not add to them. To enable us locally to manage the bookings more efficiently during this period of disruption all the Islay sailings were taken out of the online booking system. This meant that whenever someone went in to make a booking online, it was showing NA (not available). It appears that a number of people on seeing this, assumed that this meant that all sailings to Islay were fully booked, and naturally it gave cause for concern as people assumed that there was no availability to or from the Island whatsoever.

By taking the Islay sailings out of the online booking system the staff in the local port offices took better control of the situation and were able to maximise the traffic booked on each sailing. The aim ultimately is to ensure that deck space on every sailing is utilised as fully as possible, and that anyone wishing to travel is able to do so, albeit not necessarily always on their first preferred choice. I would also use this e-mail as a means to ask you all to contact the local offices at this time of disruption if you or anyone that you know is having difficulty in making a booking. We will do our absolute utmost to help every one out, so as to avoid disappointment. The contact telephone numbers are Kennacraig - 01880 730253 (select option 2) and Port Ellen - 01496 302209 (select option 2). Calmac apologises for any confusion that this may have caused.

Tag: travel calmac ferry

Over 30 members of the Neil Munro Society arrived on Islay on the 19th of June on their first official visit to the island. For those of you who don't know the man, Neil Munro is an author and wrote the Para Handy Books which were also filmed and became famous on television. Some of these films are available from youtube and I have also included some episodes on Islay TV. There's a comprehensive biography on the Society website.

On arrival, the members of the Neil Munro Society headed for Finlaggan, ancient seat of the Lords of the Isles, followed by a visit to Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle where they enjoyed a talk and progress report on puffer restoration by Duncan MacGillivray, manager of Bruichladdich Distillery. This was followed by an insight into the making of the film ‘The Maggie’ by David Hammond, preceding a special screening of the 1954 Ealing Studios comedy. Continue reading...

As you might or might not know by now is that the Islay ferry service, operated by Calmac, is running a one ferry timetable where you normally see two ferries in operation, the Hebridean Isles and the Isle of Arran. This can cause some disruptions and alterations on several routes in the west of Scotland but most people and freight make it to Islay on time due to the efforts of Calmac, for some however the situation can be unpleasant. The reason for the one ferry timetable is the fact that the MV Clansman on another route in the Inner Hebrides broke down some weeks ago which caused the changes to the timetable. Why this is affecting Islay is very well explained in the Ileach newspaper on the 3rd of July.

The MV Clansman, one of the biggest ships in the CalMac fleet at 99metres, with a capacity of 90 cars and over 600 passengers, has suffered a major engine failure. A counterweight has come off the crankshaft resulting in her having to be withdrawn from service. She limped round to the James Watt dock in Greenock where the engine was removed by cutting a hole in the car deck and winching the unit out. Spare parts have been sourced, but rebuilding the engine and reinstalling it is going to be a long process. Engineers are working on the problem 24 hours a day but an accurate prediction of the time needed to reinstate the ship is not possible at the moment. It is certain to take several weeks however. The ‘Hebridean Isles’ has therefore had to be taken off the Islay route leaving the island served by a single ferry ‘Isle of Arran’. Continue reading.....

Ecological, Environmental and Green are modern terms applied to a specific architectural genre. But, really, all architecture should have this value at its core. There are various ways for architecture to be regarded as ‘eco’. It can be a heavy old stone building that will last for years and years, or it can be a more ‘light’, transient architecture, as evidenced in the camps of reindeer herders in Russia. They pack up their tents after a few weeks and move on and no one would be aware a community had lived there. Islay’s own environmental architect, Rachel MacNeill, is working on a project on the Oa for Mina and Alasdair Carmichael which embodies the former.

Rachel: ‘We have taken an old, ruined dwelling on Mina and Alasdair’s farm, and are rebuilding it as a family home. 'This project embodies eco architecture on many different levels - socially, materially and energetically to name but a few. 'We are using traditional lime mortar to pick and repoint the walls. Combining this with sheep wool insulation on the inside will allow the walls to breathe. 'This is a very old way of working, but sheep wool insulation nowadays is a very modern product. It is clean and carded and processed into soft, aerated felt. 'In contrast, we are using the most up to date boiler system which links a wood burning stove with solar panels, and uses both to power the under floor heating. The stove will heat in winter and the solar panels will come into their own in summer when the stove is not required. Continue reading....