Step off the train at Wemyss Bay, follow the curved glass roof down to the pier, and thirty-five minutes later you are on Rothesay's seafront. This is CalMac's main crossing to Bute, and the only one that lands you in the island's town rather than on a slipway miles from it.
Summer timetable 27 March – 18 October 2026 (sheet last updated 20 March 2026) and winter timetable 19 October 2026 – 25 March 2027 (sheet last updated 17 July 2026), both read on calmac.co.uk on 24 September 2026. CalMac — Wemyss Bay-Rothesay summer and winter timetables (PDF) · 2026-09-24
Take the train to the end of the line, not the car to the end of the road. Wemyss Bay station and the ferry terminal share one building: a glazed concourse whose curved ramp runs straight down to the pier, so a foot passenger from Glasgow walks from platform to ship without stepping outside. On the Bute side the boat ties up in Rothesay itself, CalMac's "main town" of the island, with buses and taxis a hundred yards from the gangway.
Drivers have a choice this page should be honest about. Bute has a second, much shorter crossing at the north end, Colintraive to Rhubodach, which is cheaper for a car and quicker on the water but leaves you on a bare slipway eight and a half miles from town, with no public transport at all. That route suits drivers starting from Cowal. This one is the right answer from Glasgow, Greenock or anywhere on the railway, and for anyone who wants to arrive where the island's shops, hotels and buses are.
The ships are MV Argyle and MV Bute, a matched pair from the same Polish yard, in service since 2007 and 2005 and both assigned to this crossing. The one weekly break in the pattern comes on Wednesday afternoons, when CalMac cuts the sailings to every two hours so that maintenance can be done without taking the route out of service.
Every vehicle price below is for the vehicle alone. Add a passenger fare for the driver and for each person riding with them: a car carrying two adults costs £24.20 one way, and a return is simply double, at £48.40.
That is where the other Bute crossing starts to look tempting. The same car and two adults pay £11.60 a trip on the Kyles of Bute crossing at Colintraive, so the Wemyss Bay route costs £12.60 more each way — the price of landing in Rothesay instead of on the island's north-east corner. On foot the sum turns round: £4.35 here, and no bus waiting at Rhubodach.
| Adult, 16 and over | £ 4.35 |
| Child, 5 to 15 | £ 2.20 |
| Infant, 0 to 4 | Free |
| Adult with SPT Ferry Card | £ 2.20 |
| Adult SPT companion | £ 2.20 |
| Bicycle | Free |
| Car | £ 15.50 |
| Car, Blue Badge | £ 11.62 |
| Motorcycle | £ 7.75 |
| Small van (LGV) up to 6 m and 3,500 kg | £ 19.85 |
| Motorhome or campervan up to 6 m | £ 15.50 |
| Motorhome or campervan 6–8 m | £ 38.75 |
| Motorhome or campervan 8–10 m | £ 46.50 |
| Motorhome or campervan 10–12 m | £ 54.25 |
| Caravan up to 6 m | £ 15.50 |
| Caravan 6–8 m | £ 23.25 |
| Trailer up to 2.5 m | £ 7.75 |
| Trailer 2.5–6 m | £ 15.50 |
| Livestock trailer | Free |
Summer 2026 fares, valid from 27 March 2026 CalMac — Wemyss Bay-Rothesay fares, summer 2026 (PDF) · 2026-09-24
Measured in a straight line between the two terminals, the crossing is about eleven kilometres, west across the Firth of Clyde from the Inverclyde shore into Rothesay Bay. CalMac allows 35 minutes for it. Compare the Kyles of Bute further north, where the island almost touches the mainland and the boat covers half a kilometre in five minutes; here Bute is properly across the water, which is why this route, and not that one, carries the train traffic.
The terminal is the lower half of the railway station: the ticket office, waiting area, toilets and free Wi-Fi are all in the building at the foot of the ramp. Drivers pay to park in the station car park beside the port, which CalMac puts at 100 spaces, with more room opposite the Gulf filling station; there are four electric charging points between the bus stop and the station front. McGills buses stop 25 metres from the door and taxis wait outside. In summer the port office opens at 6.45 a.m. on weekdays and stays open until 8 p.m., or 9 p.m. on a Friday.
You land in the middle of town. The terminal has a ticket office, a waiting room with a coffee cabin, accessible toilets, two charging points and a defibrillator, but no car park of its own — CalMac's advice is a five-minute walk to the town's parking. West Coast Motors buses leave from about 100 yards away, the taxi rank is the same distance, and the Co-op's cash machine is 150 yards off. The summer office hours start at 6 a.m. on weekdays.
CalMac's summer timetable prints Glasgow Central connections alongside each sailing, but a footnote says those rail times stopped being valid after 16 May 2026. The winter sheet carries a newer set. CalMac also warns that some connections are too tight to be guaranteed, so check ScotRail's own times before you rely on a particular train.
Drivers are told by CalMac's route page and by both timetables to be ready for boarding 20 minutes before departure. The Wemyss Bay and Rothesay port pages both say 30. Plan the drive on the port pages' number, since CalMac says late vehicles may be refused. Anyone walking off the train has it easier: every source gives foot passengers 10 minutes.
Nothing is reserved, and on a journey built round a train that is a mercy: miss the boat you meant to catch and the next one takes the same ticket, whatever date you typed when buying. The limit is the timetable period — summer or winter — that the date falls in. Changes and refunds are not offered, and people bought together must travel together, on every leg.
From midday on Wednesdays the service drops to one ship and a boat every two hours, all year round. If you are coming back from Rothesay after lunch on a Wednesday, the choice is 13:05, 15:00, 17:00 or 19:00.
Bicycles travel at no charge. If six or more of you are riding together, tell the port office before you come; otherwise, CalMac warns, part of the party may have to wait for a later boat.
Both ships have a dedicated pet area, a coffee cabin, toilets and free Wi-Fi on deck 4. CalMac describes two wheelchair-friendly lifts from the vehicle deck on each.
The pier at Wemyss Bay was built for exactly this job. Historic Environment Scotland lists the station and pier together at Category A: James Miller designed it in 1903–4 for the Caledonian Railway, with a circular booking office inside a two-thirds circle of concourse, from which the platforms curve one way and the covered ramp to the steamer pier curves the other. The line from Greenock had reached Wemyss Bay in 1865. More than a century later the building still does what its architects intended, handing passengers from train to boat.
What the building cannot do is guarantee the timing. CalMac publishes the connecting trains but says plainly that some arrive or leave with less time than the walk needs, and the summer sheet's rail columns are out of date. Treat the ferry times on this page as the fixed part of the journey and look up the train separately. The same habit is worth keeping at Mallaig, where the Skye sailing also advertises connections with Glasgow trains.
This page is the Wemyss Bay one. Both reach Bute, but Colintraive crosses from Cowal in five minutes and lands on a slipway on the island's north-east shore. Wemyss Bay–Rothesay is a 35-minute crossing from the Inverclyde coast, next to a railway station, into Bute's main town. CalMac treats each as the alternative to the other.
Yes, and this is the route for it. Trains run from Glasgow Central to Wemyss Bay, where the station stands beside the pier and a covered ramp leads down to the boat. At Rothesay the terminal is in the town, with West Coast Motors buses and a taxi rank about 100 yards away. CalMac does not guarantee the rail connections, so allow some slack.
CalMac takes one ship out of service on Wednesday afternoons for planned maintenance, in both the summer and the winter timetable. The morning is normal; after that the boats leave Wemyss Bay at 14:05, 16:05, 18:05 and 20:05, ten departures in the day instead of fourteen.
Less than you might expect. The Friday and Saturday late sailings — 21:00 from Wemyss Bay, 20:00 from Rothesay — end on 18 October; every other departure carries on unchanged. CalMac has not yet published the port offices' winter opening hours, and neither Christmas Day nor New Year's Day has any sailings.
£24.20 one way: £15.50 for the car and £4.35 for each adult, because the vehicle fare covers nobody inside it. A return is £48.40. The same party would pay £11.60 a trip on the Colintraive crossing, though that means driving round by Cowal to reach it.
No. CalMac recommends buying in advance, yet any departure within the season you selected will accept the ticket, and a car arriving without one may still be carried if there is room — the Wemyss Bay port page nonetheless calls advance purchase for vehicles strongly recommended.
Either MV Bute or MV Argyle — the two sisters share the route. Both are 72 metres long, were built by Remontowa in Gdańsk, and have a coffee cabin, pet area and toilets on deck 4. MV Bute entered service in 2005 and loads at both bow and stern; MV Argyle followed in 2007.
Not at the terminal itself. CalMac describes the parking as a five-minute walk away in town, and keeps two accessible spaces at the terminal. At Wemyss Bay the station car park beside the port, with about 100 spaces, is paid parking.