Name MV Eilean Bhearnaraigh Yard number 283 Length 15.90m/55.1ft Launched 1982 Builder George Brown & Company | Namesake Berneray Tonnage 68grt 38nrt Beam 7.00m/23.0ft Draft 1.65 m | |
MV Eilean Bhearnaraigh is a small passenger ferry built for the Outer Hebrides. After serving the monks on Papa Stronsay, she now operates in Southern Ireland as Sancta Maria.
Contents
History
MV Eilean Bhearnaraigh, a small landing craft type ferry, was built for Comhairle nan Eilean Siar in 1982, to provide the first vehicular link between Berneray and Otternish. After the new causeway opened in 1998, she ran as the Eriskay ferry. In 2002 she was bought by the monks of Papa Stronsay, a small island in the Orkney archipelago.
Service
MV Eilean Bhearnaraigh was built for the Berneray crossing, coming into service in 1982. Displaced from there in 1999, by the opening of the causeway, she moved to the Eriskay service, also serving as secondary vessel for the Sound of Barra service.
In 2002 she was purchased by the monks of Papa Stronsay to service their monastery.
She now runs to Bere Island in Southern Ireland and is named Sancta Maria.