Twenty point eight miles separate the two Islay ports, and since 2 June 2026 that distance has been the passenger's problem: Port Ellen is shut for a rebuild that CalMac does not expect to finish until 2029, and every boat from Kintyre now lands at Port Askaig.
Amended summer timetable (Port Askaig only) 2 June to 18 October 2026; winter timetable 19 October 2026 to 25 March 2027. First read on calmac.co.uk on 24 September 2026 and read again, unchanged, on 13 and 15 October 2026, when every day up to 25 March was compared with CalMac's sailing data for the Islay and Colonsay routes. CalMac — Kennacraig–Port Askaig summer and winter timetables (PDF) · 2026-10-15
Twenty point eight miles is CalMac's own figure for the road between Port Askaig and Port Ellen, and it now sits between many visitors and their beds. On Tuesday 2 June 2026 Port Ellen closed so that Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd could rebuild it, a project the operator costs at £107 million and expects to reopen in 2029. Until then there is one ferry port on Islay for the Kintyre service, and it is on the north-east coast, on the Sound of Islay, rather than at the south end of the island where many visitors had planned to land.
The timetable adapted rather than shrank. Two ships, MV Finlaggan and the newer MV Isle of Islay, still run up to five round trips a day from Kennacraig, all of them into Port Askaig at one hour fifty-five minutes. What changed is the pressure on a small village terminal with around two dozen parking spaces, and the chain of knock-on rules that followed: arrive neither late nor early, choose the right port pair online, and plan your own onward journey.
This page therefore covers one crossing, with Port Ellen described as a closed port rather than a destination. If you are booking for a date after the rebuild, check again; CalMac has not published any Port Ellen times beyond June 2026.
On CalMac the car and the people in it are ticketed separately, so a couple driving over pays £63.40 one way and £126.80 there and back. In every row but one, a return is simply two singles.
The exception is the SPT concession: £2.50 each way but £4.00 for a return, not £5.00. The fares page and the PDF both print it like that, so it is how CalMac charges and not a typo. Nothing in the fares changed with Port Ellen's closure; the table was always the same for both Islay ports.
| Adult, 16 and over | £ 9 |
| Child, 5 to 15 | £ 4.50 |
| Infant, 0 to 4 | Free |
| Adult SPT concession | £ 2.50 |
| Adult SPT companion | £ 4.50 |
| Pedal cycle | Free |
| Car | £ 45.40 |
| Blue Badge car | £ 34.05 |
| Motorcycle | £ 22.70 |
| Trailer up to 2.5 m | £ 22.70 |
| Caravan up to 6 m | £ 45.40 |
| Caravan 6–8 m | £ 68.10 |
| Motorhome up to 6 m | £ 45.40 |
| Motorhome 6–8 m | £ 113.50 |
| Motorhome 8–10 m | £ 136.20 |
| Motorhome 10–12 m | £ 158.90 |
| Light goods vehicle up to 6 m | £ 54.40 |
Last published fares: summer 2026, valid from 27 March 2026. On 15 October 2026 CalMac had still published no winter 2026/27 fares for Kennacraig–Islay, so check the fares tab before buying for travel from 19 October. CalMac — Kennacraig–Islay fares, summer 2026 (PDF) · 2026-10-15
The ship leaves Kennacraig on the south shore of West Loch Tarbert, works out to open water and turns north into the Sound of Islay, the narrow strait on Islay's east side where Port Askaig sits. CalMac times the passage at one hour fifty-five minutes, and every sailing on both sheets keeps to that figure. The old Port Ellen run, round the island's south coast, took two hours ten. Measured as the crow flies, the distance would run straight over Kintyre, so this page does not quote one; the time is the number that matters. Long as it is, that is a middle-distance run by CalMac's measure: the Oban boat to Castlebay spends well over twice as long at sea. A much smaller boat also reaches Islay between April and September: the Kintyre Express passenger service from Ballycastle, which runs to its own timetable.
Kennacraig is a proper terminal rather than a slipway: ticket office, waiting room, toilets with an accessible one, baby changing, free Wi-Fi and a hot-drinks machine. Drivers report to a booth on the left just inside the car park entrance; when it is unstaffed, signs direct you to the terminal team. An electric vehicle charger sits about fifteen metres from the terminal, across from the marshalling area.
The car park is where plans go wrong. CalMac says outright that a space at Kennacraig is not guaranteed and that demand is high, so anyone leaving a car to cross on foot should have a fallback. The nearest fuel and cash are at the Clachan filling station, five miles away; local buses stop just outside. CalMac's other Kintyre crossing, the turn-up-and-go boat from Claonaig to Arran, leaves from an unstaffed slipway on the far side of the peninsula.
Port Askaig is a small village on the Sound of Islay with a terminal built for a fraction of the traffic it is now taking. There are roughly 24 parking spaces and five accessible ones, a barrier that admits only checked-in vehicles and closes after the last sailing, and no overnight parking in the lanes. Construction work around the harbour affects the marshalling lanes and the turn off the main road, so approach slowly.
Practicalities are close together: a petrol station thirty metres from the terminal, a shop at twenty-five, the bus stop at twenty. The one thing missing is a cash machine — the nearest is ten miles away in Bowmore.
Drivers must be ready to board half an hour before sailing, foot passengers ten minutes before. At Port Askaig CalMac also asks you not to turn up more than half an hour before that deadline: the space is so tight that early arrivals may be sent away and told to come back.
Book online even on foot. The notice on the route says to choose Kennacraig–Port Askaig, because choosing Port Ellen or plain 'Islay' shows no results. The route page still explains the old three-way choice, so the two CalMac texts disagree; the notice is the more recent.
Vehicle space on MV Isle of Islay stays reduced while a fault with her mezzanine decks is outstanding; CalMac now plans the repair for her annual overhaul from the beginning of February 2027. Its notice no longer mentions the bow-door fault that had her loading over the stern only.
If your accommodation is in Port Ellen, it is now about 20.8 miles from where you land, and CalMac runs no connecting bus. Travel planning for Islay's own buses goes through Traveline Scotland.
Travellers whose Port Ellen booking was switched to Port Askaig can reclaim the island taxi or bus fares that the change caused, using CalMac's passenger rights form.
The rebuild is substantial. CMAL's plans for Port Ellen include reclaimed land for car and lorry marshalling, a dedicated berth sized for the present ships and two future Ro-Pax vessels, a new linkspan and fixed ramp, a bigger terminal building, more room for fishing boats and a commercial quay about four times as long as the present one. Piling was due to start on 31 August 2026.
The fleet is mid-change as well. Finlaggan was built in Gdansk and named at Port Askaig in May 2011; Isle of Islay, from Cemre in Turkey, is the first of a pair ordered for Islay. Her CalMac page gives both 2023 and 2024 for her building and launch, and her first season has not been smooth: bow doors, mezzanine decks and the Kennacraig gangway have all featured in CalMac's service notices, and the mezzanine repair now waits for her overhaul in February 2027.
No. Port Ellen closed on 2 June 2026 for CMAL's redevelopment and CalMac expects it to reopen in 2029. Every sailing from Kennacraig runs to Port Askaig, 1 hr 55 min away, and both the summer and winter timetables list Port Askaig only.
CalMac puts it at about 20.8 miles. There is no ferry shuttle between the two; CalMac points travellers to Traveline Scotland for Islay's bus services, and Port Askaig's bus stop is twenty metres from the terminal.
Because the booking engine now only returns results for Kennacraig–Port Askaig. CalMac's service notice says choosing Port Ellen or 'Islay' shows nothing, even though the route page still describes three options.
For what remains of the summer timetable, the 19:30 from Port Askaig on Saturday 17 October, landing at Kennacraig at 21:25; on the other remaining summer days the last boat back is the 18:05. From 19 October the last departures are 17:25 to 18:05 depending on the day.
£63.40 one way and £126.80 return: £45.40 for the car, which excludes the driver, plus £9.00 per adult each way. A Blue Badge car is £34.05.
Only Saturdays now. One ship leaves Port Askaig for Colonsay in the morning — 09:45 on 17 October, 07:00 through the winter — which is why Saturdays look thin next to the other six days. The summer Wednesday link, when the 10:00 from Kennacraig carried on to Colonsay, ran for the last time on 14 October. Colonsay's other way in is the direct CalMac sailing from Oban, which runs on set days only.
Not realistically. Only island residents may queue on standby with a motorhome, campervan or caravan here; a visitor without a booking will be turned away if the deck is full.
Two, both announced by CalMac for warranty work on MV Isle of Islay: the 18:10 from Kennacraig on Thursday 15 October, and the 07:00 from Port Askaig on Friday 16 October, because the ship stays overnight at Kennacraig. None had been announced for the winter timetable at the 15 October check.