Appledore–Instow Ferry
Foot ferryEngland · Appledore & Instow Ferry
two hours either side of high water
About two hours either side of high waterSailing window
1 April to Saturday 24 October2026 season
£2.00, card onlyAdult single
A British ferry can be a lifeline vessel holding a Scottish island to the mainland, a chain ferry hauling cars across a harbour on a wire, or a man with a boat who crosses an estuary when the tide allows. They answer to different masters — CalMac under contract to Transport Scotland, an islands council running its own fleet, a Devon estate with a single launch — and none of them publishes in the same way.
That difference decides what each page can say. Lifeline routes publish sailing times a season ahead, because the ferry is the road and the timetable is a public commitment. Tidal foot ferries publish no grid at all: they run either side of high water, and the hours move with the moon. Where that is the case, the page explains the mechanism rather than inventing a timetable that does not exist.
Fares divide along the same line. Scottish island routes follow Road Equivalent Tariff, which prices a crossing as if you had driven the distance; a private estate ferry charges what it charges, in cash, and changes it when it likes. Beside each fare table sits the day it was transcribed, and the operator's own page is one click away.
The pins are slipways and piers, one page each, joined by the crossing they serve. Pick one to see its timetable, what it charges and how to get to either end.
two hours either side of high water
four hours a day, six months of the year
the boat that saves the Walton Bridge detour
Arran's northern door, and the Tarbert question
Bute's back door, thirty-two times a day
a mile of Loch Linnhe, six days a week
the longest crossing on Shetland's council network
ten minutes to Unst, twenty-eight times a day
Westray, and the week the timetable turns
four and three quarter hours to Barra
Crossing time and sailings are reproduced as the operator words them, which is why the columns do not always line up: a lifeline route counts one weekday's departures, a chain ferry gives a headway, and a tidal crossing gives neither. An empty cell means that operator publishes no such number, not that we could not find it.
| Crossing | Nation | Service | Crossing time | Sailings | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appledore–Instow Ferry | England | Foot ferry | – | – | Appledore & Instow Ferry |
| Bantham–Bigbury Ferry | England | Seasonal service | – | – | Bantham Estate |
| Shepperton–Weybridge Ferry | England | Foot ferry | – | – | The Ferry Point |
| Claonaig–Lochranza Ferry | Scotland | Vehicle ferry | – | – | CalMac |
| Colintraive–Rhubodach Ferry | Scotland | Vehicle ferry | – | – | CalMac |
| Fort William–Camusnagaul Ferry | Scotland | Foot ferry | – | – | Highland Ferries |
| Grutness–Fair Isle Ferry | Scotland | Island service | – | – | Shetland Islands Council Ferry Services |
| Gutcher–Belmont Ferry | Scotland | Vehicle ferry | – | – | Shetland Islands Council |
| Kirkwall–Rapness Ferry | Scotland | Island service | – | – | Orkney Ferries |
| Oban–Castlebay Ferry | Scotland | Island service | – | – | CalMac |
It is a route the state pays to keep running because the island has no other year-round link. Transport Scotland contracts most of them, which is why their timetables are published a season ahead and why they sail in weather that would keep a commercial boat alongside. It also means cancellations are announced through the operator rather than left to chance.
Road Equivalent Tariff. On most Scottish island routes the fare is worked out as though you had driven the equivalent distance by road, rather than from what the sailing costs to provide. It is why a long Hebridean crossing can cost less than a short private ferry in the south of England.
Because they depend on the tide. A foot ferry across an estuary can only run when there is water over the sandbank, so the operator publishes the window rather than a grid, and the hours shift by roughly fifty minutes each day. Those pages here set out the mechanism and link to the operator's daily notice.
On the busier island routes in summer, yes — vehicle decks fill weeks ahead and turning up is a gamble. On short crossings, chain ferries and foot ferries, no: you join the queue and board in turn. Where booking is genuinely required rather than merely wise, the page for that crossing says so.
Each table is dated on the day it was transcribed from the operator's own timetable, and the document it came from is archived so the figures can be checked against what was actually published. Crossings are re-researched before their review date falls due. What none of that settles is whether today's sailing runs: wind and swell cancel British ferries at a few hours' notice, and only the operator announces that.