The Herald carried an encouraging headline earlier this week. “CalMac confirms ferry service to resume between Ardrossan and Arran”. Well, up to a point. This rare phenomenon is scheduled to start on Monday, last for a fortnight and utilise one of three possible vessels – they don’t yet know which – before disappearing again.

One of the three candidates is the 36 year-old “Lord of the Isles”. That has a knock-off effect for the long-suffering people of South Uist from which “their” vessel is being removed (not long after returning) on possibly the busiest weekend of the year. Instead of the LOTI sailing to and from Mallaig, another vessel will ply between Oban and Lochboisdale.

Everyone who has made travel plans will have to adjust accordingly or cancel, including visitors from far and near heading for a major Gaelic festival, Ceòlas, in South Uist. Mallaig and Oban are 87 miles apart, while accommodation tends to be at a premium in July. Just their luck – one more example of consequences which continues to be visited upon people and islands.

This fresh wave of cancellations and redeployments stems from the basic fact that the CalMac fleet has been run aground in terms of numbers and maintenance, despite millions being spent, quite literally in some cases, on plugging the holes. CalMac say plaintively: “We are doing the best we can to maintain service levels with the vessels available to us during this period”.

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