Storms cancel ferries in Scotland and Norway

Dozens of ferries cancelled, with passengers in Norway flown north to avoid storm

Bute force: the harbour at Rothesay, where ferry services are currently disrupted (Simon Calder)

Almost all Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) ferry routes in western Scotland have been disrupted, with many links cancelled all day, as high winds sweep in from the southwest.

Gales gusting up to 75mph are expected in parts of Scotland.

The ferry line has cancelled links to and from Arran, Barra, Coll, Harris, Lewis, North Uist, Raasay, Skye and Tiree, as well as the services from Mallaig to the Small Isles.

CalMac says the link from Arran to Iona is suspended and a decision will be made at 12 noon about later sailings.

Many other sailings are disrupted. The service between Wemyss Bay and Rothesay on the Isle of Bute is now running as a passenger-only service to Gourock on the Clyde.

Western Ferries, which sails between Gouruck and Dunoon, is not accepting buses or high-sided vehicles.

Between Scrabster and the Orkney port of Stromness, NorthLink ferries has brought forward the late-afternoon and early-evening sailings to lunchtime “due to forecast adverse weather conditions”.

The evening sailing from Aberdeen to Lerwick in Shetland on both Tuesday and Wednesday “is currently under review with a high probability of cancellation”.

Tuesday morning’s Loganair flight between Glasgow and Barra, where the runway is the beach, has been cancelled.

The Met Office has warned of the risk of “short-term loss of power”.

Traffic Scotland says that the A1, the main road from Edinburgh to Newcastle, is closed in East Lothian due to high winds. A diversion is in place, and drivers have been warned to expect longer than normal journey times.

ScotRail, CrossCountry and LNER trains are running normally on the parallel line between Edinburgh and Dunbar.

The Skye Bridge is closed to high-sided vehicles.

The Hurtigruten ferry service, which normally sails daily from Bergen in Norway and across the Arctic north of the country to the Russian border, has also suffered cancellations because of Atlantic waves predicted to reach 27 metres.

One passenger, Duncan Passmore, told The Independent: “We arrived in Bergen on Saturday and were told the ship Polarys was in Trondheim where it had terminated its cruise due to seven-metre seas.

“The forecast was for 27-metre swells so the terminating passengers were flown in chartered 737s and we were flown to Trondheim in same planes. The crew tell us this has happened quite frequently in recent weeks.

“We are loving the experience so far and Hurtigruten have done a marvellous job, especially transporting us to Trondheim which must have wiped their profits out on the cruise.”

In southern England, meanwhile, services between London, Gatwick airport and Brighton are disrupted due to “animals on the line” at Earlswood. Some trains have been cancelled and many others delayed.