page_title: Pentland Ferries
section_title: Fleet
hierarchical_section_title: Pentland Ferries / Fleet
caption_attribution_description: English: Pentland Ferries, MV Pentalina B at Dunkerque, France. Formerly CalMac vessel, MV Iona
context_page_description: Pentland Ferries is a privately owned, family company which has operated a ferry service between Gills Bay in Caithness, Scotland and St Margaret's Hope on South Ronaldsay in Orkney since May 2001. The company is one of only two major vehicle ferry operators plying within Scotland which are not subsidised by the Scottish Government or local authorities.
context_section_description: The current catamaran ferry, MV Pentalina, was built in the Philippines for the Pentland Firth, where it entered service in March 2009. The ferry has a capacity of 350 passengers and either 32 cars and 8 articulated lorries or an increased number of cars, with a service speed of 18 knots.
  The original ferry, former Caledonian MacBrayne vessel MV Iona, was purchased in October 1997 and renamed Pentalina-B. The first drive-through MacBrayne ferry with both bow and stern doors, she carried around 50 cars, or 4–5 articulated lorries and fewer cars. During the off-seasons since 2006, she was chartered out, carrying livestock across the channel from Dover and providing freight relief for CalMac. She was sold to an owner in Cape Verde in late 2009.
  Another former CalMac vessel, Claymore, was owned between October 2002 and March 2009. After another attempt at starting up the Orkney to Invergordon route fell through, the vessel was put to work during the winter season in place of Pentalina-B. Claymore was sold in March 2009.
  The fleet also includes a barge, used for dredging at Gills in the summer and an extension to the pier at St Margaret's Hope in the winter, a former fishing boat, to tow the barge and a tug / workboat for general duties. In addition to the usual tractor units and tugs for moving trailers and other cargo equipment there are a number of pieces of construction and earth-moving equipment not usually required by a ferry company.
  In February 2015, the company bought a further CalMac vessel, MV Saturn, to be used as a freight vessel.
  An order for a new 85m catamaran ferry was placed with Strategic Marine with funding secured from Bank of Scotland. It is being built in a shipyard in Vũng Tàu, Vietnam and was due to enter service in summer 2018. The vessel, named MV Alfred, arrived in St Margaret's Hope on 9 October 2019, and entered service on 1 November 2019.
caption: Pentalina B at Dunkerque in 2008
exif: {"Image Make": "Hewlett-Packard", "Image Model": "Photosmart M425", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "230", "Image YResolution": "230", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Version 1.4400,SN:CN69TH426CF", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2272", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "6426", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3627", "EXIF ExposureTime": "707/250000", "EXIF FNumber": "39/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:17 15:11:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:17 15:11:44", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "16/5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "423/50", "EXIF ApertureValue": "148/25", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "1851/200", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "113/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "D55", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2576", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6286", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "109", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4088"}