Buy the ticket online before you set off, since nobody sells tickets at either slipway. Then aim to be at Sconser ten minutes ahead on foot, thirty in a car. CalMac's MV Hallaig makes nine 25-minute return trips on weekdays and Saturdays and three on Sundays, and the winter timetable that starts on 19 October trims the evening departures by a few minutes.
Summer timetable 27 March – 18 October 2026 (sheet last updated 10 December 2025) and winter timetable 19 October 2026 – 25 March 2027 (last updated 10 September 2026), both read on calmac.co.uk and checked against CalMac's own sailing data on 7 October 2026. CalMac — Sconser-Raasay summer and winter timetables (PDF) · 2026-10-07
Plan the Raasay trip from Skye rather than from the island. The boat leaves from Sconser, a small settlement on Skye's east coast, and both ends are unattended slipways, so whatever you need, from a ticket to a full fuel tank, has to be sorted before you queue. Raasay itself is a small, wild island facing Skye's mountains across the Sound of Raasay, and on the far side there is no bus or taxi waiting.
Next, choose your boat with the return in mind. Weekday mornings actually begin on the island, with the 07:55 to Sconser, and the last sailing back to Skye leaves Raasay a little after six in the evening; the Sunday equivalent is 16:30. Anyone crossing for the day on the 08:25 or 09:25 from Sconser gets a full day on the island, while a late-afternoon arrival leaves very little time.
Finally, check which timetable season your date falls in. The summer timetable covers sailings up to 18 October. After that date the two evening departures from Sconser leave five and fifteen minutes earlier, and season tickets bought for the summer stop being accepted.
Price a car trip in two parts: the vehicle fare covers the car alone, and each person aboard, whoever is driving too, buys a foot-passenger fare on top. A car is £8.75 each way and an adult £2.65, so a couple taking the car over and back should budget for the car return plus two adult returns. Bicycles go free, and the Blue Badge rate on CalMac's fare sheet brings a car down to £6.56 single.
No ticket belongs to a particular boat. Online you nominate a day, yet the ticket is accepted on any crossing within that timetable season, and this month that matters: a summer ticket will not be accepted after 18 October, and CalMac does not amend or refund them.
| Adult (16+), single | £ 2.65 |
| Adult (16+), return | £ 5.30 |
| Child (5–15), single | £ 1.35 |
| Child (5–15), return | £ 2.70 |
| Bicycle | Free |
| Car, single | £ 8.75 |
| Car, return | £ 17.50 |
| Motorcycle, single | £ 4.40 |
| Motorcycle, return | £ 8.80 |
| Campervan or motorhome up to 6 m, single | £ 8.75 |
| Campervan or motorhome up to 6 m, return | £ 17.50 |
Summer 2026 fares, valid from 27 March 2026; CalMac has published no separate winter fares. Read on 7 October 2026. CalMac — Sconser-Raasay fares, summer 2026 (PDF) · 2026-10-07
The crossing runs north-east from Sconser over the Sound of Raasay to the island's ferry terminal, a short hop with Skye's mountains filling the view astern.
Sconser sits on the A87, which makes the Raasay boat an easy add-on for anyone arriving on Skye by the Mallaig to Armadale ferry or by the little Glenelg ferry to Kylerhea. Boats for Harris leave from Uig, further north on Skye, on the crossing to Tarbert.
Sconser is a scatter of houses on the A87 along Skye's east coast, and the slipway has no staff ashore. The small terminal building has free wifi, toilets including an accessible one, and a waiting room upstairs on the first floor. There is a car park with two marked accessible bays.
Stagecoach buses stop about 30 metres from the slipway. Fill the tank before you come: CalMac says the nearest fuel, cash machine and groceries are 11 miles from the port.
On Raasay the boat lands at an unstaffed slipway beside a terminal building with wifi, a waiting room, toilets, an accessible toilet and baby changing, plus parking with two accessible spaces.
There is no bus or taxi to meet you on the island side, and the local shop is about two miles away, so walkers should carry what they need and drivers should have arranged everything on Skye first.
No one is stationed at either slipway to sell tickets. Buy online in advance; CalMac's port pages say the crew can sell you one on board too, but online is the safe option.
Drivers should be in the queue half an hour before departure so the crew can check them in; foot passengers need ten minutes. Pre-booking a vehicle is strongly recommended, though no specific sailing can be reserved.
Fuel, cash and groceries are 11 miles from Sconser, and Raasay's shop is about two miles from its slipway, so arrive stocked.
There is no bus or taxi at the Raasay end. If you come on foot, plan to walk or cycle from the slipway.
A text reading CALMAC SUBSCRIBE 17, sent to 60030, brings this route's disruption alerts to your phone for half a year.
Pets are welcome on the Hallaig. The passenger lounge is reached from the car deck, and the boat has low thresholds and an accessible toilet.
The ferry on the route, MV Hallaig, was produced by Ferguson's Port Glasgow yard in 2012 as a diesel-electric hybrid that also draws on lithium-ion batteries, cutting the carbon emitted on each short crossing. CalMac notes that she was the first ship fully built and delivered on the Clyde for over five years.
Her name is borrowed from a poem by Sorley MacLean about Hallaig, a township on Raasay abandoned during the Highland Clearances. It is an unusual dedication for a working car ferry, and it gives the twenty-five minutes across the Sound something to think about.
08:25 from Monday to Saturday, and 10:30 on Sundays. The very first boat of a weekday actually starts on the island, leaving Raasay at 07:55.
On weekdays until 18 October it is the 18:05, and from 19 October the 18:00. Saturdays add a 19:30 that is timetabled in summer and runs only on request in winter. On Sundays the last departure from Raasay is at 16:30.
Yes. CalMac's vehicle prices exclude the driver, so a car crossing one way costs £8.75 for the vehicle plus £2.65 for each adult on board.
Not from a ticket office, because the slipway is unattended. Buy online in advance; CalMac's port page says tickets are also sold on board.
No. Turn-up-and-go tickets, including ten-journey ones, are valid only in the timetable season they were bought for, and the summer season ends on 18 October.
The Hallaig stays tied up on 25 December and again on 1 January. The day after each, she makes one return trip only: 12:30 from Raasay, 13:00 back from Sconser.
No, bikes travel free. Groups with six or more bikes should tell the port office beforehand, as CalMac may not fit them all on the first sailing they want.