WEMYSS Bay Harbour is to close for five months.
Improvement works will be starting on October 1 for around 24 weeks and a temporary diverted vehicle and passenger service will operate between Rothesay and Gourock.
Currently the harbour includes a 1970s concrete pier end, 1980s timber fendering and 1970s vehicle linkspan structure.
All have now reached the stage where major refurbishment works are required to secure the long term future of the port.
CalMac's director of operations, Drew Collier, said: “While this work will cause some unavoidable inconvenience it is necessary to secure the long term future of the port facility.
“We have put in place what we believe is the best possible alternative route to minimise disruption."
Some 56 sailings per week will run from Rothesay to Gourock.
There will be no impact on the Argyll Ferries timetable to Dunoon.
The harbour will also be dredged as part of the project, which will give berthing vessels greater flexibility in bad weather.
Mr Collier added: “Although all options were looked at, including short term closures and night working. An extended closure was seen to be the best option for minimising disruption."
New Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) fares for the route are being brought forward to coincide with the start of the diversion.
Details of the new fares and conditions and temporary timetable can be found at www.calmac.co.uk/press/wemyss-bay-harbour-improvement-work
The temporary diversion will be advertised extensively in ports and rail stations.
The work is being carried out by port owners, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited.
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 here