Start of summer ferry service postponed

The start of the seasonal Campbeltown-Ardrossan ferry service will be delayed by a week after the main ferry serving Arran was taken out of service for repairs.

A spokeswoman for ferry operator CalMac told the Courier: ‘MV Caledonian Isles had to be removed from service after experiencing a major technical issue.

‘The repairs to her port main engine will now take until Tuesday May 3 to complete, with MV Isle of Arran now running the core service vessel on the Ardrossan to Brodick route.

‘This means that we will not be able to start the Campbeltown service from Thursday April 28 as planned.

‘Engineers are working on a 24/7 rota to ensure that MV Caledonian Isles will be back in service next week, and they are confident that we will be able to start the Campbeltown service from Thursday May 5.

‘We are extremely sorry for the disruption that this will cause to the community.’