Lismore Ferries

Crossing

The ferry crossing from Oban to Achnacroish on Lismore takes about fifty minutes, with the small ferry able to carry approximately 5 cars. However, I suspect that few tourists ever venture across with their cars as the island is quite small, and quiet, enough to walk or cycle round in a day.

The pier at Achnacroish is actually not on the B8045, which is Lismore's only classified road, but sits down a relatively steep hill on an unclassified road.

In 2014, following the introduction of the new ferry for Raasay, the MV Loch Striven was transferred to Oban for the Lismore service. However, due to tidal constraints at both ends of the journey, the ferry has not been able to offer a full service, instead only making some of the crossings each day, often with a slightly amended timetable, with the MV Eigg remaining in Oban for the remainder of the crossings to Lismore.

Future

At present, there is also a passenger-only service which connects Port Ramsay, on the B8045 at the north of Lismore to Port Appin on the mainland. However, a review currently in progress is looking at whether Lismore would be better served by a vehicle ferry on this much shorter route, and at best a passenger-only service into Oban.

2013 Ferries Plan

Following the review of the 2012 draft ferries plan for the coming 10 years, the final plan has now been published. The long term proposal for Lismore is to remove the connection to Oban, and provide a shuttle vehicle ferry service to Port Appin. Whilst this has generated a number of criticisms from islanders, as it would prevent residents from crossing to Oban as foot passengers for shopping / access of services, it would significantly improve access to the rest of the mainland! It would also free up room in Oban for the proposed additional services to other islands.

In order to provide the new service, significant infrastructure improvements will be required, including to the slipways on both sides of the crossing, and to the road from Port Appin to the A828 at Appin village. As the Port Appin service is currently operated by Argyll & Bute Council, the draft plan makes provision for this service, and all other operated by local authorities, to be transferred to Calmac. With the eventual removal of the Oban service, it seems likely that the current ferry will be re-deployed to Port Appin, and that Calmac will take over the route.

Ferries

Name	IMO	Operator	Dates	Notes
The Lismore		Argyll and Bute Council		Passenger only (Port Appin-Lismore)
Loch Striven	8512293	Caledonian MacBrayne	2014-date	12 cars (Oban-Lismore)
Eigg	7340411	Caledonian MacBrayne	1976-?	5 cars (Oban-Lismore)

Links

• Calmac Homepage
• Port Appin Ferry