Revellers return from Barra after ferry fault fixed

Hundreds of festivalgoers returned to the Scottish mainland today after becoming stranded on Barra when their ferry broke down.

The Oban to Barra vessel the MV Clansman developed problems on Saturday night on its first weekend back in service after around six weeks of repairs for a separate issue.

Operators Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) cancelled the 9.20am Barra to Oban service yesterday as the boat had to return to the mainland without passengers.

The fault disrupted the travel plans of hundreds of music lovers who had been on the Hebridean island for Barra Fest – Live @ the Edge on Friday and Saturday.

CalMac put on a temporary service between Barra and Mallaig on Sunday to enable some people to leave the island, but it was a smaller vessel than the MV Clansman, with less space for vehicles.

Following repairs, the MV Clansman sailed for Barra from Oban at 7.30pm yesterday and returned from the island early this morning with the waiting passengers.

A company spokesman apologised for the inconvenience.

He said: "The Clansman got into Oban at approximately 6.30am with the last of the stranded festivalgoers – around 270 of them.

"In total we've ferried about 350 people off from Barra over the last couple of days.

"The Clansman is still playing catch-up, so although she's now repaired she's not operating to the normal timetable quite yet.

"We expect normal service to resume tomorrow morning."

Barra Fest – Live @ the Edge celebrates modern traditional music and drew around 1,000 people on each of the two nights.

The MV Clansman, which has capacity for 638 passengers and 90 cars, was out of action for around six weeks while engineers repaired a problem with its starboard engine.

It returned to service on Friday but developed a problem with its port side engine.