Finished for 2026: the crossings ran from 3 April to Sunday 20 September, and Brightlingsea Harbour has not yet published dates for 2027. When it runs, one twelve-seat boat links three shores of the Colne estuary in a loop of under half an hour, saving road round trips of 21 miles to Point Clear or 40 to East Mersea.
2026 season, 3 April – 20 September 2026, from Brightlingsea Harbour's Ferry Calendar 2026, read 15 October 2026. No 2027 dates published yet. Brightlingsea Harbour — Ferry Calendar 2026 (PDF) · 2026-10-15
Where the River Colne meets the sea, three communities sit within a mile and a half of one another by water but many miles apart by road. Brightlingsea sits on its creek on the eastern side; across the creek mouth lies Point Clear, the seaward end of St Osyth; and across the main channel to the west is East Mersea, the quiet end of Mersea Island, where Cudmore Grove Country Park looks over both the Colne and the Blackwater. By car they are a long way apart, because the roads have to go a long way inland to get round the water.
The harbour's foot ferry joins all three. It is run by Brightlingsea Harbour Commissioners, the body that manages the harbour itself, using small open boats, MCA-certified for twelve passengers, with room for bikes, buggies, wheelchairs and dogs and a ramp for landing on the beaches.
It is a summer service. The 2026 season ended on 20 September, and nothing has been announced for 2027 yet.
All fares are single journeys, so a day trip from Brightlingsea to Cudmore Grove and back costs an adult £10.00. The short hop over the creek to Point Clear is cheaper at £3.50. Babies under one and dogs travel free; bikes pay their own fare.
Book online or in the harbour's app. On low-season days that is compulsory — without a booking the boat will not come for you — while on mid and high-season days booked passengers board first and walk-ups fill any spare seats and hand over cash or a card once on the boat. Online bookings can be cancelled up to 24 hours ahead for a £2.50 fee.
| Adult | £ 5 |
| Child under 16 | £ 4 |
| Bicycle | £ 2.50 |
| Adult | £ 3.50 |
| Child under 16 | £ 2.50 |
| Bicycle | £ 1.50 |
| Child under 1, or dog | Free |
Fares each way from the 2026 Ferry Calendar, unchanged from 2025; read 15 October 2026 Brightlingsea Harbour — Ferry Calendar 2026, fares each way · 2026-10-15
Plotted from the national stop database, Brightlingsea's jetty is only about 340 metres from Point Clear across the creek mouth, and East Mersea about 1.4 km away across the main channel of the Colne. The harbour's own comparison makes the point: a round trip between Point Clear and Brightlingsea takes three minutes by water and 21 miles by road, and a return visit to East Mersea by car is 40 miles, since the roads must head inland to get round the estuary.
The boat berths at the far end of Brightlingsea's public jetty, a few steps from the Harbour Office on Copperas Road, which hands out walking booklets and ideas for the day. This is the only jetty on the circuit, and, as the harbour's leaflet points out, it doubles as Brightlingsea's crabbing spot.
On Mersea Island the boat runs its bow onto the shingle at East Mersea Stone and lowers a ramp, landing you at the edge of Cudmore Grove Country Park. Point Clear, the middle stop on the St Osyth side, is a beach landing in the same way. Both are fine for walkers but awkward on wheels once you leave the ramp.
The printed calendar marks each day low, mid or high season. On white, low-season days you must book online or the boat will not run for you.
The ferries are open boats and keep going in cold or rain; only a cancellation brings a refund.
A landing ramp gets wheelchairs and buggies ashore, but Point Clear and East Mersea are shingle beaches beyond it.
Nobody under 16 may travel without an adult. Dogs go at the coxswain's discretion, leashed and under control.
The harbour suggests a 2 km sea-wall ramble or a 6 km coastal walk from Point Clear, and the nature trails of Cudmore Grove from East Mersea.
The crossing to Point Clear is old. The harbour says records show a passenger ferry between Brightlingsea and Point Clear since 1699; it stopped in 2002, when the ferryman retired, and the Harbour Commissioners brought it back in May 2004. For the twentieth anniversary, in July 2024, they sold five days of tickets at 2004 prices.
Each landing has something to walk to. Brightlingsea has its 1930s lido, beach huts, a Blue Flag beach, the museum and Bateman's Tower of 1833; Point Clear has a Martello tower and a sea-wall path to St Osyth Boatyard, where Thames barges are restored; and Cudmore Grove's 102 acres include Second World War pillboxes and fossils around 300,000 years old. Up the coast in Suffolk, the Felixstowe Ferry to Bawdsey boat and the rowed crossing at Butley keep a similar spring-to-autumn rhythm.
Not until 2027. The 2026 season ran from 3 April to 20 September and there is no winter service. Brightlingsea Harbour has not yet published dates for 2027.
On the 2026 timetable the boat left Brightlingsea on the hour, called at Point Clear at five past and reached East Mersea at quarter past, so about 15 minutes including the stop.
On low-season days, yes: without an online booking the ferry will not carry you. On mid and high-season days booked passengers have priority and others are taken if seats are free.
In 2026 an adult paid £3.50 each way between Brightlingsea and Point Clear and £5.00 to or from East Mersea. Under-16s paid £2.50 and £4.00; bikes £1.50 and £2.50.
Both are. Dogs travel free on a lead, at the coxswain's discretion, and bicycles pay £2.50 each way to East Mersea. The harbour may limit numbers of bikes and dogs on any one trip.
On the beach at East Mersea Stone, at the edge of Cudmore Grove Country Park. It is a shingle landing reached by the boat's ramp, not a pier.