Lochmaddy is the ferry port of North Uist, on the island's east coast, and its only car ferry comes from Uig at the top of Skye. One ship, MV Hebrides, shares her days between this crossing and the one to Harris, so North Uist gets one or two sailings a day — never a shuttle.
Summer timetable, 8 September – 18 October 2026 pattern (sheet last updated 10/12/2025); winter timetable from 19 October 2026 (sheet last updated 07/07/2026), shown here up to 2 January 2027. Both read on calmac.co.uk and checked day by day against CalMac's sailing data on 25 September 2026. CalMac — Uig–Lochmaddy summer and winter timetables (PDF) · 2026-09-25
Autumn does not thin this crossing so much as rearrange it. Until mid-October MV Hebrides leaves Uig for North Uist at 09:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and in the afternoon on the other weekdays; from Monday 19 October the winter sheet moves most departures by between five and twenty minutes, pulls the evening boat from Uig forward to 18:15, and turns Thursday into a morning-only day. North Uist keeps one or two sailings a day right through to January.
What winter does take away is time ashore. There is no Skye day trip from the North Uist end on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays, and from the Skye end the only same-day return gives you twenty-five minutes on the pier at Lochmaddy. Plan on Tuesdays and Saturdays if you are coming from the islands: 07:30 out, 14:00 back.
MV Hebrides serves Harris too, alternating between the two islands. That is the point of this page: the North Uist times only, with the Harris sailings on their own page.
Anyone bringing a camper to North Uist should read the vehicle table from the bottom up. Up to six metres a motorhome pays the car rate, £41.90; at 6.01 metres it jumps to £104.75, two and a half times as much, before the driver's own £8.50. An ordinary car with two adults is £58.90 one way and £117.80 return.
Blue Badge holders get the one reduction CalMac offers here, applied online, and a return costs two singles.
| Adult, 16 and over | £ 8.50 |
| Child, 5 to 15 | £ 4.25 |
| Pedal cycle | Free |
| Car | £ 41.90 |
| Motorcycle | £ 20.95 |
| Motorhome up to 6 m | £ 41.90 |
| Motorhome 6.01–8 m | £ 104.75 |
| Motorhome 8.01–10 m | £ 125.70 |
| Motorhome 10.01–12 m | £ 146.65 |
| Caravan up to 6 m | £ 41.90 |
| Caravan 6.01–8 m | £ 62.85 |
| Baggage trailer up to 2.5 m | £ 20.95 |
| Trailer 2.51–6 m | £ 41.90 |
| Trailer 6.01–8 m | £ 62.85 |
Summer 2026 fares, valid from 27 March 2026; no separate winter fares published CalMac — Uig–Lochmaddy fares, summer 2026 (PDF) · 2026-09-25
Uig sits in a horseshoe bay on Skye's Trotternish peninsula; Lochmaddy is on the east coast of North Uist, 46.5 kilometres away in a straight line, or about 25 nautical miles of open water. The crossing takes 1 hour 45 minutes every time. Harris lies to the north of the same stretch of sea, and the Uig ship spends the other half of her day on the Tarbert crossing, 1 hour 40 minutes.
Uig is a harbour of The Highland Council, which calls it the main ferry terminal for the Uists and Harris, and the pier is still being upgraded. Until the works finish, foot passengers are taken by minibus from the port office to the ship and board over the car deck. Do not plan to fill up here: CalMac's service notices say the Uig filling station is closed for a temporary period and there is no fuel in the village, even though its own port page still describes a petrol station 25 metres from the terminal.
Parking at Lochmaddy is free and long-stay, next to the terminal, with two accessible spaces and an electric vehicle charger on the pier. Local buses leave from opposite the terminal. The fuel station and the grocery are both about 800 metres away. CalMac is less sure about cash: one line puts a cash dispenser in the Post Office 100 metres from the pier, open 10:00 to 15:00 on weekdays, and the next says the nearest machine is 500 metres away.
On Uig–Tarbert–Lochmaddy only, CalMac is piloting a waitlist from 14 September to 26 October. If a sailing is full, call the port office you are leaving from, up to the day before; they take payment, and up to 24 hours before departure you either get a confirmed space or an automatic refund. Motorhomes, campervans and towed caravans cannot join unless they belong to island residents.
No fuel in Uig while the filling station is closed. On North Uist, the fuel station is about 800 metres from Lochmaddy pier.
Because of the pier works, a minibus carries foot passengers from the port office to MV Hebrides, and you walk on and off over the car deck.
Check-in closes 45 minutes before departure for drivers and 30 for foot passengers; after that your space can be given away.
For now CalMac says the coffee cabin on MV Hebrides has no hot drinks; the Mariners Café on the same deck still serves them.
Book a party in one online transaction and CalMac expects all of you on the same outward and return sailings, so anyone who may travel apart needs a booking of their own.
CalMac publishes Uig–Lochmaddy and Uig–Tarbert as two routes, with two timetables and two text codes, but runs them with one vessel. MV Hebrides was built at Port Glasgow and launched in August 2000 by the Queen — the first time a reigning monarch had named a CalMac ship. She is due to be replaced by two: CMAL describes the current arrangement as a single-vessel service and says MV Lochmor and MV Claymore will give Uig, Tarbert and Lochmaddy a two-vessel service with room for up to 100 cars each. MV Claymore was launched in Türkiye on 2 May 2026 by Mary Morrison, a former port manager at Lochmaddy.
Most drivers reach Uig from the south, and many cross to Skye on the Sleat side first: the Mallaig–Armadale ferry is the sea route onto the island. Further south the island chain is served from Oban, as on the long crossing to Barra.
Not on weekdays or Saturdays: every sailing is direct and takes 1 hour 45 minutes. On Sundays the ship arrives at Lochmaddy from Tarbert before its Uig sailing and goes on to Tarbert after the evening one. From 3 January 2027 CalMac switches to a combined sheet with direct Tarbert–Lochmaddy legs.
On Tuesdays and Saturdays, yes: the 07:30 from Lochmaddy reaches Uig at 09:15, and the 14:00 from Uig brings you back at 15:45. On other days the ship does not offer that round trip.
Yes: £104.75 one way between 6.01 and 8 metres, £125.70 up to 10 metres and £146.65 up to 12 metres, plus the driver at £8.50. Under six metres it is the car rate of £41.90. During the waitlist pilot, which runs to 26 October, motorhomes and caravans cannot join the waitlist for a full sailing unless they belong to island residents.
Not at the moment. CalMac says the Uig filling station is temporarily closed and there is no fuel in Uig, although its port page still mentions a petrol station 25 metres from the terminal. On the North Uist side the nearest fuel is some 800 metres from the pier.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 09:40 and 18:15. On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday there is one, at 14:00, 09:40, 14:00 and 14:30 respectively.
Check in at the port office at least 30 minutes before departure. While the pier is being upgraded a minibus takes foot passengers to the ship, and you walk on over the car deck.
It is a CalMac pilot on this route only, from 14 September to 26 October. You ask the departure port to put you on the list for a full sailing up to the day before and pay then; you are confirmed if space appears or refunded automatically. If that fails, the ordinary first-come standby queue on the day is still there.