A MASS exodus of islanders from the Western Isles to Runrig’s final fling is putting ferry services under pressure.
The Gaelic rockers are bowing out of the music scene after 45 years with a series of sold-out farewell concerts place in Stirling on 17 and 18 August.
Many thousands of fans from across Scotland and beyond are planning to attend.
The Last Dance shows are being staged at the new outdoor events venue, Stirling City Park, beneath the ramparts of Stirling Castle.
Runrig has a massive fan base in the Western Isles.
Although popularly touted as a Skye band, the two key members are Gaelic speaking brothers, Rory and Calum Macdonald from North Uist.
Extra flights from the islands were quickly snapped up.
Shipping operator Caledonian Macbrayne warns that the Stornoway ferry is rapidly filling up for that weekend.
Heavy demand for travel to the Runrig events means the MV Loch Seaforth is nearing its maximum capacity of 700 passengers for each sailing over the period.
On some sea crossings it is impossible to squeeze any more vehicles onboard.
Cal Mac is advising all passengers to reserve their return journeys on the Ullapool/Stornoway service as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
In particular, ferry tickets are selling fast for the period from 16th to 20 August.
A CalMac spokesman said: “Demand for passenger spaces as well as vehicles is likely to be very high for the weekend of August 20-21, so we would urge people who are travelling to see Runrig’s final concert to book as soon as they can. Spaces on the vessel the day preceding the concerts and the day after in particular are filling up quickly.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel