Ferry Ports

The islands rely heavily on the Scotland ferry ports for passenger services and goods. The more remote islands would suffer greatly without these services but there are some much larger ferry services to consider as well. These connect Scotland with Ireland in the west and Zeebrugge from the easy coast.

Northern Ireland has two routes into Larne and Belfast from Stranraer and Cairnryan. The busiest sea route is the one serving Orkney and the Scotland ferry port at Kirkwall. Vessels go from the main Orkney to Aberdeen and Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. These are important routes for the local community as well as providing good tourist services to visitors.

The Dutch coastal town of Zeebrugge has a daily service from Rosyth. All the Scotland ferry ports are referred to at iam-scotland.org.uk. Information on the boats, the port terminal facilities are also there on the website. The ports on the island have fewer facilities but they do have local accommodation and places to eat.

The Scotland ferry ports have been operating these services for a long time and have developed facilities for travellers. Typically there are places to eat in and around the port harbor, as well as hotels for overnight stops. The Northlink ferries which connect to Kirkwall are car ferries, so visitors touring with their own car are catered for.

The iam-scotland.org.uk website shows the ferries which are car carrying vessels and a wealth of useful information about Scotland. There are a host of smaller island ferry ports which are served from Kirkwall by Orkney ferries. These ports are basically small harbours but do provide the vital link to the larger towns and then the mainland.