MV Glen Sannox deployed on Lewis route for HebCelt festival

The MV Glen Sannox is to be deployed to help passengers heading for a music festival later this month.

The £200m CalMac ferry will provide additional capacity on the Ullapool to Stornoway route for those heading for HebCelt from 15-18 July.

It is hoped the vessel, which will join MV Loch Seaforth on the crossing, can provide transport for up to 10,000 extra passengers over the weekend.

The ferry will be temporarily renamed the "HebCelt Special" when it begins crossings on Monday.

Glen Sannox can carry an additional 852 passengers, 127 cars or 16 HGVs, added to the Loch Seaforth capacity of 700 passengers, 143 cars or 20 commercial vehicles.

Both vessels will make twice daily crossings until Saturday.

CalMac's head of brand marketing, Peter Griffiths, said: "The deployment of MV Glen Sannox alongside MV Loch Seaforth will help festival goers travel to and from Lewis while ensuring local residents, businesses and commercial customers can continue to travel with confidence.

"We're pleased to play our part in helping visitors experience everything HebCelt has to offer while maintaining vital connections for the communities we serve."

MV Glen Sannox - the first LNG dual-fuel ferry to be built in the UK - entered service in January 2025, nearly seven years late and about four times over budget.

It was the first new major vessel to enter the CalMac fleet in a decade.

When it began sailings the ship quickly won praise from ferry users as it served the Arran route during the busy summer period.

However, the ship was withdrawn for service for scheduled annual maintenance in November and remained out of action for four months while work was carried out to address a number of issues.

This included adding eight tonnes of steel to the hull to strengthen it after a small crack had developed at the stern section of the ship earlier in the year.

The Ferguson Marine shipyard, which built Glen Sannox, has traced the underlying cause of the crack to a vibration issue linked to the propellers, which were designed by an overseas contractor in 2016.

New propellers are due to be fitted to Glen Sannox later this year which, it is hoped, will solve the vibration problem.

Meanwhile, the ship is currently being used by CalMac as a "resilience vessel", based at Stornoway, which can be called upon if other ships break down.