Skye, Uist and Harris sailings hit by ferry fault

Ferry services between Skye, North Uist and Harris have been disrupted after a fault developed on CalMac's MV Hebrides.

Sailings between Uig, Lochmaddy and Tarbert were cancelled on Tuesday and again on Wednesday due to a problem with the boat's firefighting system.

The Hebrides is to sail to Ullapool for repairs.

CalMac said an additional service would operate between Lochboisdale and Armadale, but it warned of potential capacity issues.

The MV Hebridean Isles has been temporarily redeployed to cover the Hebrides route, leading to a disruption of some sailings to and from Islay in Argyll.

On its way, Hebridean Isles will stop at Oban on Wednesday to pick up priority traffic and carry that to Lochmaddy. This sailing is expected to set off from Oban at 16:30 and arrive in North Uist at 23:00.

CalMac said cancelling a sailing was a decision it did not take lightly, and apologised to customers for any inconvenience caused.

It later confirmed a lack of replacement vessels will result in Islay temporarily going down to a one-vessel service.

The operator also said replacement timetables will be published as soon as possible on its website and Twitter feed.

Managing director Robbie Drummond said: "Disrupting services is a decision we do not take lightly, but as this was a safety matter, we had no choice but to remove the vessel from service.

"We fully understand how this affects our customers and the communities we serve.

"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused and our team is working hard to bring MV Hebrides back into service as soon as possible and return all vessels to their normal timetabled services."

Some sailings on the Hebrides were disrupted last week after a suspicious package was found while it was in Skye.

The ferry was evacuated.

Police investigated and found the package not to be suspicious.

In May, the Hebrides required repairs after it hit a pier in North Uist.