Home » Travel » Wullie Davidson: Blogging about Bus Pass Jaunts in Scotland » Wully Davidson Bus Pass Rambles: Islay

Wully Davidson Bus Pass Rambles: Islay

Ferry Outing to Port Askaig, Islay

(9th April 2025)

Brilliant weather, lately, so decided on an early start to this year’s ramblings. Today’s outing would be a two hour ferry trip from Kennacraig to Port Askaig, on the east coast of Islay. I’d have just 25 minutes to walk around Port Askaig taking some photos, before boarding again for the return trip. The Campbeltown bus left Buchanan bus station at 0910, arriving at Kennacraig at 1232, in plenty of time for the departure of the MV Finlaggan at 1300. Cost of return ticket £17.40. The return trip departs Port Askaig at 1530, arriving back at Kennacraig at 1725, to catch the bus to Glasgow at 1755, arriving at Buchanan bus station at 2116. An alternative strategy would be to get the 0830 bus to Oban, getting off for a 40 minute stopover in Inveraray, before catching the Campbeltown bus at Inveraray.

Normally, the drivers of the Oban and Campbeltown buses have a 10 minute stopover at Inveraray, to allow passengers to get off and stretch their legs. But, the bus was running late, and the driver announced that there wouldn’t be a stopover. Unfortunately, two of the passengers appear not to have heard him, and were ‘left’ in Inveraray. So, that’s two passengers whose day out was ruined. Presumably. You never know, maybe they decided to hike on up to the watchtower on Dun Na Cuaiche, and had an even better day out than the one they had planned. It’s a fantastic view over Loch Fyne in weather like this.

Islay

Port Askaig Ferry Terminal

CalMac usually have two ferries serving Islay, alternating between Port Askaig and Port Ellen in the south west. But, with all the maintenance issues they’ve been having with their aging fleet, plus late deliveries of new vessels, there’s currently just the one ferry, MV Finlaggan, operating at Islay. That means that today’s trip can only be done on Wednesdays or Saturdays. They hope to resume the normal service of two ferries soon, so timetables will change.

Port Ellen is the main port in Islay, but Bowmore is the capital, where local government offices, police and fire station are. There are two bus services from Port Ellen, one going to Port Charlotte, the other to Port Askaig. Both go through Bowmore. When there were two ferries operating, you could get the first Campbeltown bus out of Buchanan bus station at 0610, and be in Port Ellen by around 1200, have an hour in town, then get the Port Charlotte bus, getting off at Bowmore. After an hour in Bowmore, you’d get the Port Askaig bus coming from Port Ellen, and then get the Port Askaig to Kennacraig ferry. That’s a pretty impressive day out, but there’s an even more Impressive trip (maybe ‘odyssey’ would be a better word) that could be done when there were two ferries. I’ll describe that one later.

Jura

Jura

Port Askaig sits on the Sound of Jura, and there’s a small car ferry that shuttles back and forth between Port Askaig and Feolin, 800 yards away on Jura. Jura is a combination of mountains and blanket bog, so is unsuitable for agriculture. It’s 142 square miles, but has a population of just 196, with 113 of them in the only village, Craighouse. There’s one single track road on the south and east of the island, connecting Feolin with Craighouse There’s no car ferry from Jura to the mainland, so car travel is via Islay. There’s a small catamaran passenger ferry from Craighouse to Tayvallich, on the mainland, which operates during the summer months.

Paps o’ Jura

Jura’s best known feature is the ‘Paps o’ Jura’, a goup of three similarly shaped mountains in the south west, which can be seen very clearly from Port Askaig. On a sunny day like today, you can get a fantastic photo. The Paps are a popular challenge for the more hard core element of Scotland’s hill walkers.

Port Askaig

Port Askaig from the ship

Port Askaig is made up of two ferry terminals, a tiny harbour, hotel with public bar, general store attached to a few self catering holiday flats, ferry terminal building, petrol pump, and lifeboat station. That’s about it. I didn’t see any houses, although I was only on the ground for 25 minutes, so there may be houses that I missed. One oddity that stands out is a fairly big old cannon of the type that might have been used at the battle of Trafalgar. I’ve no idea how that got there, but it is pretty incongruous.

Cannon and lifeboat

The self catering holiday flats would be a good base for exploring Islay and Jura for a week. Because of the ferries, it’s actually pretty hectic, and I’d guess that it would get way too touristy for my liking in mid summer, so I probably paid it a visit at the ideal time.

That Big Trip I Mentioned

Jura Ferry

This trip was doable when there were two ferries serving Islay. You do the aforementioned trip through Port Ellen, Bowmore and Port Askaig, but instead of getting the ferry back to Kennacraig, you get the ferry to Jura, then catch the waiting minibus to take you to Craighouse.

You have 40 minutes in Craighouse, before getting the passenger ferry to Tayvallich on the Argyllshire coast. The ferry costs £27.50, and is often fully booked, so has to be booked days beforehand. You have about 40 minutes in Tayvallich, then you get the bus to Lochgilphead, with 15 minutes to spare for the last Campbeltown to Glasgow bus arriving. It stretches credulity that all of that can be compressed into a day trip, but it certainly was the case a couple of years ago. It would all be a bit too hectic for me, so I just mention it as an ‘academic’ exercise. Even when CalMac has the two Islay ferries up and running again, there’s no guarantee it will still be doable, as timetables change all the time.

Update: (After checking the ferry and Islay bus timetables, it turns out that the Port Ellen to Bowmore to Port Askaig to Kennacraig bus and ferry trip can still be done on Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri/Sun. The bus times are depart Port Ellen 1315, arrive Bowmore 1339. Depart Bowmore 1445, arrive Port Askaig 1510. Ferry departs for Kennacraig at 1530.)

Wullie Davidson, April, 2025 – See more Bus Pass Rambles

This section: Pat's Home Page Blog, Wullie Davidson: Blogging about Bus Pass Jaunts in Scotland