Lord of the Isles Replacement

As with many other large vessels in the CalMac fleet during the late 2010s and early 2020s, it was becoming very evident that the 1989 built Lord of the Isles was rapidly reaching the end of her useful life. As with anything else, breakdowns were becoming more frequent and maintenance costs were spiralling. Annual overhauls were almost guaranteed to overrun as more remedial work was identified. When talk turned to a replacement for Lord of the Isles, options were more limited - a simple copy and paste of the Islay Class design couldn't be adopted because of the restrictive nature of Lochboisdale and Mallaig harbours.

At the time of writing (November 2024) the project to replace Lord of the Isles is still at the design stage - there is still a long way to go before this ship arrives on the scene. Ongoing at the same time is a project CMAL are undertaking to develop a new deep water terminal near Lochboisdale, utilising the island of Gasay. Mallaig is also being investigated for development in order to remove the current restrictions on vessels that can access the terminal.

We will update this profile in due course as and when details become available.