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Purchase Strangford ferry tickets

Roads Service operates the ferry service across Strangford Lough between the villages of Strangford and Portaferry in Northern Ireland.

Purchase Strangford ferry tickets

Please e-mail queries to:

SMS text message alert service

Passengers can register to receive SMS text message service updates.

  • text 'FERRY' to 66101 to register
  • text 'STOP' to 66101 to stop

Text messages are free in the UK.

Crossing time

To travel the distance between Strangford and Portaferry by road is approximately 75 kilometres and takes about an hour-and-a-half by car.

By contrast, the ferry route is approximately 0.6 nautical miles with a typical crossing time of about eight minutes.

The ferry runs for approximately 16 hours each day, 364 days per year.

The service normally operates with one vessel, leaving each slipway at 30-minute intervals; from Strangford on the hour and half hour and from Portaferry at a quarter past and a quarter to the hour. The car-carrying capacity of the MV Portaferry II is 28.

It is not necessary to book your crossing before arriving at the ferry slipways at Portaferry or Strangford. You buy your tickets on board the vessel. Vehicles and passengers are charged separately. However if you are a regular user of the ferry service you can buy multi-journey tickets (20 journeys) online - you can access this facility below.