Tarbert is, in CalMac's words, the main community hub on Harris, and its terminal is the island's ferry link with Skye. The ship that comes in from Uig is the one that also serves North Uist, so Harris gets its own crossings on some days and a share of a triangle on others.
Summer timetable, pattern for 8 September – 18 October 2026 (sheet last updated 10/12/2025); winter timetable from 19 October 2026 (sheet last updated 07/07/2026), shown to 2 January 2027. Read on calmac.co.uk and compared day by day with CalMac's sailing data on 25 September 2026. CalMac — Uig–Tarbert summer and winter timetables (PDF) · 2026-09-25
1 hour 40 minutes, 42.6 kilometres, £41.90 for the car and £8.50 for each person in it: those are the fixed numbers of the Harris crossing. The variable one is the timetable. MV Hebrides works this route and the North Uist route with the same hull, so on any given day Harris is either where she starts, with an early departure from Tarbert, or somewhere she calls at around midday.
Until mid-October the Harris-first days are Monday, Wednesday and Friday — 07:20 or 07:10 off Tarbert — and on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday the ship comes from Uig in the morning and goes back at lunchtime. Sunday, in summer, has one direct crossing each way. From 19 October the pattern survives with new times, but winter Thursdays keep only one sailing, 15:00 from Uig, and nothing leaves Tarbert at all that day.
Sundays are the hole in this page. CalMac's printed sheets and its own sailing data disagree about the Harris sailings routed via Lochmaddy, so the times are left out below and the reason is given.
Two adults and two children in a car pay £67.40 to cross to Harris and £134.80 there and back: £41.90 for the car, then everyone aboard is ticketed as a passenger, driver included. There is no discount for a return and no SPT concession here; a Blue Badge reduction can be applied online.
| Adult (16+) | £ 8.50 |
| Child (5–15) | £ 4.25 |
| Bicycle | Free |
| Car | £ 41.90 |
| Motorcycle | £ 20.95 |
| Motorhome, 6 m or less | £ 41.90 |
| Motorhome, over 6 m to 8 m | £ 104.75 |
| Motorhome, over 8 m to 10 m | £ 125.70 |
| Motorhome, over 10 m to 12 m | £ 146.65 |
| Luggage trailer, 2.5 m or less | £ 20.95 |
| Trailer, over 2.5 m to 6 m | £ 41.90 |
| Trailer, over 6 m to 8 m | £ 62.85 |
| Caravan, 6 m or less | £ 41.90 |
| Caravan, over 6 m to 8 m | £ 62.85 |
Summer 2026 fares, valid from 27 March 2026; no separate winter fares published CalMac — Uig–Tarbert fares, summer 2026 (PDF) · 2026-09-25
Tarbert lies 42.6 kilometres from Uig as the crow flies, a 23-nautical-mile passage over the Little Minch, and CalMac gives the crossing as 1 hour 40 minutes — five minutes quicker than the North Uist run from the same pier. Tarbert and Lochmaddy are themselves 39.6 kilometres apart, which is why a Sunday routing via Lochmaddy stretches a Harris crossing to about four hours.
Free parking at Uig is limited to the terminal area, with a single accessible space beside the building; the electric vehicle charger is in the council car park next door. Buses stop by the ticket office, and CalMac lists two local taxi firms. Until 18 October the office opens at 08:00 every weekday and Saturday and closes between 18:30 and 19:00, and on Sundays keeps 12:00 to 18:35. The Highland Council's ro-ro pier has a hydraulic linkspan tested to 120 tonnes.
CalMac calls Tarbert the main community hub on Harris, with the tweed shops, hotels and restaurants to go with it. The shop is 100 metres from the terminal, the cash machine 200, the petrol station half a mile. Parking is in a free council car park 200 metres away, with accessible spaces beside the terminal, and the buses to Stornoway and to Leverburgh go from 200 metres off. Inside there are toilets, a Changing Places toilet, baby changing and a defibrillator.
Uig's only filling station is shut for now, CalMac warns, so arrive with a full tank. On Harris the petrol station is half a mile from the pier.
Drivers report to the booth on the left inside the car park entrance 45 minutes before the ship leaves; foot passengers go to the terminal desk 30 minutes before.
Until 26 October CalMac replaces advance standby on this route with a waitlist. Call the departure port the day before at the latest; if no space comes up you are refunded, and you can still queue on the day. Campervans and caravans are excluded unless owned by island residents.
Buses from Tarbert run to Leverburgh, where CalMac's Sound of Harris ferry crosses to Berneray. That is the everyday way between the two islands; the Uig ship only links them directly on certain days.
A multi-person online booking ties everyone on it to the same sailing, out and back.
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CalMac treats Uig–Tarbert as a route of its own, with its own sheet and its own SMS code, even though its waitlist notice talks about 'Uig–Tarbert / Lochmaddy' as one service. The ship is the reason. CMAL, which owns CalMac's vessels, calls today's arrangement a single-vessel service and has two replacements under construction in Türkiye, MV Lochmor and MV Claymore, built to the same design as the new Islay ships described on the Kennacraig page. MV Lochmor was launched in August 2025 by Kay MacLeod, a CalMac employee of more than thirty years who works at the Tarbert terminal; CMAL said then that she would arrive in Scotland later in 2026, and no date for her first sailing has been published.
Drivers who reach Skye by sea rather than over the bridge usually arrive on the Sleat crossing from Mallaig, at the opposite end of the island from Uig; the Harris ship then starts from the north tip of Trotternish.
No: the winter sheet that starts on 19 October has just one Thursday sailing, 15:00 from Uig, reaching Tarbert at 16:40. The last Wednesday departure from Tarbert is 16:00 and the next one is 07:30 on Friday.
The printed winter sheet shows a Sunday departure from Tarbert in the morning and one from Uig in the afternoon, both routed via Lochmaddy, but CalMac's sailing data lists neither as a Uig–Tarbert crossing. Until the two match, ring Tarbert port office on 01859 570376 before relying on a Sunday sailing.
£67.40 one way and £134.80 return for two adults and two children. The car is £41.90; each adult, driver included, pays £8.50, and each child aged 5 to 15 £4.25. Under-5s travel free.
Yes, MV Hebrides runs both. CalMac publishes the two crossings as separate routes with separate timetables but identical fares, and the ship alternates between them day by day.
CMAL has not given a date. MV Lochmor was launched in Türkiye on 23 August 2025 and CMAL said she would reach Scotland later in 2026, followed by crew familiarisation and trials; her sister MV Claymore was launched on 2 May 2026. Together they are meant to replace the single ship now on the route.
07:10 on Wednesdays and 07:20 on Mondays and Fridays until mid-October, and in winter 07:30 each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the first departure from Tarbert is not until late morning.
Not on an ordinary weekday. The regular way is by bus or car to Leverburgh and CalMac's Sound of Harris crossing to Berneray. CalMac's combined winter sheet from 3 January 2027 does include direct Tarbert–Lochmaddy legs.