From Wednesday 11 November to Monday 7 December the smaller MV Loch Riddon covers the Sound of Barra while Loch Alainn is overhauled. She has room for ten cars rather than twenty-four, so a vehicle place should be booked ahead.
CalMac amended summer timetable (17 June – 18 October 2026, updated 22 June) and winter timetable 2026/27 (19 October 2026 – 25 March 2027, updated 10 September), read on 15 October 2026 and checked day by day against CalMac's bookable sailings to 25 March 2027. CalMac — Ardmhor (Barra)–Eriskay winter timetable 2026/27 (PDF) · 2026-10-15
Near the foot of the Outer Hebrides chain, Barra and Eriskay look at each other across the Sound of Barra. CalMac's MV Loch Alainn crosses it in forty minutes, from the slipway at Ardmhor on Barra's north-east coast to Eriskay. From there a causeway carries the road onto South Uist, so this short crossing is the hinge between Barra, with Vatersay beyond it, and the islands that run north through the Uists and Benbecula to Berneray.
Winter sailings begin on Monday 19 October and last until 25 March 2027: five return crossings on every day but Sunday, which gets two, and an idle ship on 25 December and New Year's Day. Until Sunday 18 October the amended summer times still apply, with earlier first boats from Barra and a Sunday that starts only at midday.
The bigger change comes in the middle of the autumn. From 11 November to 7 December Loch Alainn is away for her annual overhaul, and the much smaller Loch Riddon takes over the same timetable.
CalMac's car price buys deck space for the vehicle only; the driver and anyone else inside are each charged a passenger fare as well. Two adults in a car are therefore charged £22.85 one way and £45.70 return, and each child between five and fifteen adds £2.10.
For campers, length decides everything: a motorhome of 6 metres or less pays the same £14.45 as a car, whereas a 7-metre van pays £36.15. Returns mostly cost twice the single. Holders of a Blue Badge claim their reduction while booking online.
| Adult, 16 and over | £ 4.20 |
| Child, 5 to 15 | £ 2.10 |
| Bicycle | Free |
| Car | £ 14.45 |
| Motorcycle | £ 7.25 |
| Motorhome up to 6 m | £ 14.45 |
| Motorhome 6.01–8 m | £ 36.15 |
| Motorhome 8.01–10 m | £ 43.35 |
| Caravan up to 6 m | £ 14.45 |
| Caravan 6.01–8 m | £ 21.70 |
| Trailer up to 2.5 m | £ 7.25 |
| Adult return | £ 8.40 |
| Car return | £ 28.90 |
CalMac summer 2026 fares, valid from 27 March 2026 and still the published list on 15 October 2026 CalMac — Ardmhor–Eriskay fares, summer 2026 (PDF) · 2026-10-15
Loch Alainn was launched at Buckie in April 1997 and spent more than ten years on the Largs crossing before CalMac moved her to the Outer Hebrides. CMAL, which owns her, gives her room for 150 passengers and 24 cars; the lounge opens off the car deck, and dogs are allowed aboard. Her autumn stand-in, Loch Riddon, dates from 1986, normally works the Largs–Cumbrae run in summer and is a relief ship in winter: she takes 199 passengers yet a mere ten cars, hence the advice to reserve a car space for the four weeks from 11 November.
Nobody staffs the Eriskay slipway, so tickets come from CalMac online or on the boat. There is a waiting room, car parking and free wi-fi, and the island bus stops at the top of the slipway. Eriskay's shop is about a mile up the road; petrol means a nine-mile drive to Daliburgh on South Uist, and the closest cash machine is thirteen miles off in Lochboisdale.
Ardmhor is a scatter of houses on the north-east corner of Barra, and its slipway is unattended as well. The small terminal building has a waiting area beside the marshalling lanes, toilets, a vending machine and wi-fi, and parking is free. CalMac lists no bus or taxi at this end, and fuel, cash and groceries are all twelve miles away in Castlebay, so arrive with a full tank.
CalMac charges nothing for a bicycle but asks you to add it to the booking so space is kept. A party of six cyclists or more must warn the port office before the day.
Check-in shuts 20 minutes ahead of each sailing, whether you drive on or walk on; latecomers can lose their place.
Motorhomes and caravans should spend the night only at campsites or designated stopping places: that is the request of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, set out in its P.L.A.C.E code.
With Loch Riddon on the route, capacity is lower than usual; CalMac advises anyone intending to travel in that period to reserve.
This crossing is text code 21 in CalMac's SMS alert service, and cancellations also show on the CalMac app.
Everyone named on an online booking has to sail together on every leg; if your party might split, book separately.
For cyclists this is the first of the two ferries on the Hebridean Way, the waymarked 185-mile (297 km) route from Vatersay to the Butt of Lewis lighthouse that also uses six causeways. The other boat is Berneray to Leverburgh on the Sound of Harris; everything between the two, from Eriskay through South Uist, Benbecula and North Uist, is ridden on the road.
Barra is reached from the mainland on the Oban–Castlebay ferry, and South Uist on the Mallaig to Lochboisdale crossing. Pairing one of those with this boat lets you land at one end of the southern isles and leave from the other without retracing the road.
No. Eriskay is tied to South Uist by a causeway, and the Uists form a chain of islands linked by causeways as far as Berneray. The next boat north after this one is Berneray to Leverburgh, on Harris.
MV Loch Riddon, from Wednesday 11 November to Monday 7 December, while Loch Alainn is overhauled. She carries ten cars instead of twenty-four, so CalMac recommends booking.
£22.85 one way, made up of £14.45 for the car and £4.20 apiece for the two people in it, since CalMac charges the driver as a passenger. Coming back costs the same again, £45.70 in all.
07:15 from Ardmhor on Monday to Saturday, reaching Eriskay at 07:55. On Sundays the first boat leaves Ardmhor at 08:45.
No, bicycles are carried free. Add yours to the booking so that space is held, and if you are six or more riders, let the Lochboisdale or Castlebay port office know in advance.
There is no ticket office: Ardmhor is unattended. Book online or by phone in advance, or pay on board; CalMac advises booking even if you are on foot.
Both bank holidays, 25 December and New Year's Day 2027, are blank. The two Saturdays straight after them, the 26th and the 2nd, get a single round trip each: 08:30 out of Ardmhor and 09:30 back from Eriskay.