UKC

I'm planning on bikepacking around the Scottish islands - possibly the Outer Hebrides, but maybe just Arran, Islay and so on...

Calmac's website seems to want advanced booking and getting there 2 hours before. 

What's the reality of how to handle things?  Can I wing it and just turn up?  Am I likely to struggle to find a space?  Are some routes mor of an issue than others?  Is August Bank holiday a nightmare?  Is it busier the nearer I am to the centra belt?  Anything else to consider?

Cheers.

I'd just wing it, bookings usually only needed to guarantee a car space, foot passengers and bikes be fine to turn up. You can usually walk on 15 mins before departure, a little longer for bikes as you'd board before or after cars. 1 hour would be tons. the ferry would not even be in port at that point and still on its way across. 

We tried winging it in April/May last year (admittedly with a van) and it was impossible. This year we booked. The boat wasn't anyway near full. I'm sure people were just turning up on spec. I think for you with just a bike, you'd have a very good chance. But this is pure speculation, of course!

For some ferries passengers have to be there 30 mins before departure, I think it's 45 mins for Coll and Tiree.

I saw some climbers left behind in Oban on their way to Mingulay because they didn't check in on time.

Ive only done this in a car but you cant wing it - There is usually a queue formed of cars and your booking is checked before they let you join the queue - i dont think the chaps controlling the queue can book you in.

There are some of the smaller ferries you cant book and you do need to just turn up - the one between harris and uist springs to mind. Localine to Mull as well i think.

Cancellations are usually my main worry but i havent suffered that fate yet.

Enjoy

Assuming it’s just you, and you’re not in a larger cycling party, you’ll be 99% fine from a space point of view.

However due to the Scottish Governments (read SNPs) shambolic oversight, large parts of CalMacs fleet are on their last legs, with some vessels decades past their use-by date, so technical faults are common place. This means ferries being withdrawn, and schedules being amended at short notice. 
Thus you would be well advised to get the CalMac App and sign up for alerts on the service you are taking. If you know you are taking a particular service it would be wise to book a couple of days before, in case of service issues. That way if you are left stranded, or the replacement service is crammed and they won’t take you/your bike you can gain compensation, for example if you end up having to stay in a hotel till the next day.  CalMac is currently paying out £100k’s in this manner over a year.

For example I went to Islay and Jura in the spring. I got the outward ferry by ‘winging it’. On the return day I decided not to go up the hill, and sit on the beach, before my evening sailing. At midday a ferry cruises up the sound, odd I thought nothings scheduled. So I check the app to find my evening sailing had been cancelled, and an early afternoon replacement scheduled. Time for a hasty stop to my sun bathing.  The replacement was also rolling another service together but wasn’t going to the other port on the opposite side of the island . With instead CalMac bussing the booked passages to the ferry, but refusing to transfer cyclists in that arrangement, whom were going to be left there till the next day, assuming the ailing ferry could be fixed.

Thanks for the info.  I had a whiff of this while planning but hadn’t realized the scale of it.  Getting out and back in time for work will be interesting.

Thanks for the replies.  It feels like I don’t need to concern myself so much about the booking. Cheers.

Even if you book in advance you can usually change bookings to earlier sailings etc for no charge.

On the vast majority of sailings cycles are boarded first, and disembarked last. Consequently in order to keep on the sweet side of the deck crew it’s better not to cut it too fine time wise to departure. Especially for the bigger/longer sailings, where it’s possible by being late you could be denied.  For the short island hops you can get away with cutting it fine, though if you arrive after they have started vehicle boarding, you may get a bit more than a grimace.  They also will insist you push the bike on, as the metal ro-ro ramps will be wet and slippy. Car decks will be closed to access during the sailing so take what you need to keep warm, dry and fed for the crossing with you.

That’s incredibly helpful.  Much appreciated.

We were booked for Uist to Mallaig this May. Our ferry was cancelled and we were rebooked to Oban an hour earlier than planned. We had a car so were fine, the cyclists were advised to get a taxi from Oban to Mallaig.

It must be difficult for islanders to keep hospital appointments and make social events.

I hope Calmac paid the bill!?

Cycle toured lots of the west coast of Scotland.   Never booked anything, never had a problem with any crossing. Also never booked the ferry side parking at ardrossan but always been able to park with out a problem  

There is also a great little passenger/ bike ferry from Jura to Tayvallich (Needs to be booked in advance) which makes a great Ardrossan- Arran- kintyre peninsula- Islay- Jura - mainland to Oban or back to Arran/ardrossan loop possible.  

Get the CalMac app and book tickets. It's faiy easy to use the app to transfer the booking to a different ferry (I.e no extra cost), and I've also used it to transfer a booking to different route all together.  But beware of arran to ayrshire coast, early this year they were restricting foot passenger numbers (which is practically unprecedented) cos they had a boat that normally services orkney/shetland and could fit on the vehicles but didnt have enough space for extra foot passengers.

While at the start of the year, one boat was, restricted to a total of 45 passengers;

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq62j3z682lo

Due to life-boat/evacuation certification issues.

Given past history, Its almost guaranteed another boat will go out of service, leading to disruption.

I work for a Scottish ferry company, which isn’t Calmac.  I can’t comment on their specific policies because I don’t know them but can make the following comments, which are pretty universal.

You can usually fit a bike on a packed car deck without too much issue as long as there are only one or two of you, issues occur when a whole peloton turns up unannounced.

Foot passengers usually get on without booking BUT there can be exceptions which you wouldn’t necessarily know about in advance.  If there’s an event on an island (eg wedding, inter-isle football match, show etc) a usually quiet ferry can be fully booked for pax weeks in advance.  Also as Scraggy Goat mentioned above you might get a safety certification issue or if a member of staff is absent and they can’t get a replacement in time, they can sometimes still sail but carrying fewer pax.  These issues will crop up suddenly.

If you are booked and something unexpected happens (mechanical, weather, operational issue) we can call you, let you know and get you rebooked.  If you aren’t booked, we don’t know about you.

If Calmac let you change your bookings at relatively short notice with no charge, I’d advise you to book.  At least you’ll have something in the system, and it makes life much easier for the crew if they know how many folk they have onboard and they don’t have to go chasing around the deck collecting payments.

Have a fab time!

Thanks again for all the replies.  It's really helpful.  How wonderful is UKC / UKH?