Ferry from Scotland to Northern Ireland

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PBlair

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Hi

I'm looking to transport my two horses from Scotland to Northern Ireland in the next couple of months. I was just wodnering if anyone had any tips/advice as to the best ferry to get and how to make the journey as stress free as possible! I'll either be going from Stranraer or Cairnryan.

Many thanks :)
 
Are you sailing to Larne or Belfast?
I think you posted previously about moving over to Newtownards direction? If so, Belfast's a bit closer for you than Larne, although there's not a lot in it (25/30mins drive if that). You have to pass through Belfast if you're coming from Larne (sorry, not sure how familiar you are with NI so apologies if I'm telling you things you already know!)
Hve you found a decent yard for them?
Hope it all goes well for you and the neds :)
 
We regularly took two horses across in a trailer from Stranraer to Belfast on Stenaline's HSS Stena Voyager, price was very reasonable, a lot cheaper than Cairnryan/Larne. Takes about two hours, our horses were well traveled and just dozed/ate/dozed. Staff very helpful at both ends, make sure you have passports ready for inspection, you may be pulled over and asked for them and also asked where you are going so have an address for the yard you're using.

Dont carry loads of hay/lage as you're not supposed to take it from one country to another, apparently, I took small bale haylage, ok if its not opened.

Remember to put the handbrake on your trailer on as well as the vehicle one when you park on the vehicle deck. Its like driving into a big sardine can, its noisy and rattley but well lit.

You can't go to the vehicle decks whilst travelling but i'm sure they are monitored for safety.

good luck with your move, am sure your horses will be fine at sea. Only on one occassion did we have to cancel our Stena booking due to very rough conditions, it was cancelled by Stena and they were very helpful, got us booked on at Larne to Cairnryan with P&O instead, they could sail with horses as their craft has stabilisers, the HSS does not.

If you really don't want to drive them yourself try Andrew Dunlop for transport, he collected a horse for me in Donegal yesterday and had it in Somerset by mid afternoon today, can't recommend his service highly enough, and the driver was almost as nice looking as the horse!

ps if looking for a house try renting a holiday cottage for couple of weeks whilst looking, i found the estate agents really good there and they got me a super house within a week.
 
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If you're moving towards N'ards/Comber, Belfast is only 20 mins - dead handy. :)

Larne is a bit of a pain in the backside from the N'ards side... although that could just be laziness - my parents are just a bit further down the peninsula, about 20 mins from N'ards, so we get bored once our 40 mins are up to get to a ferry :D

Have you looked down the peninsula for a house? Around our homeplace houses are going for silly money, dirt cheap, and it's not too far from Comber at all. The mid-ards seems to be the most reasonable for house prices and is only about 20 mins from Comber... that's from Kircubbin up.
 
Hey! I have done the ferry quite a few times as I live on the mainland now but originally from Northern Ireland!

The fast boats are as mentioned above fast and that can reduce the stress a bit, but at the same time if the seas are a bit rough the slow boats are much better as they sit lower in the water and give a much better ride for the ponies. P&O are good because they usually put you out on deck. Sounds a bit scary but they tie you down really well and I prefer it as the horses get much more ventilation.

Remember if you are travelling you must bring your horses passport and also make a note of where you left from and at what time, what horses are on board, where you are going to and what time you expect to get there as you will have a vet inspection at the Belfast docks where you have to do a transport certificate, pretty informal normally. They just like to see the horse has bedding and basically has 4 legs and thats about it!

Our horses normally don't drink well on the lorry either so we stick a soaked sponge in their mouth before we leave them to make sure theyre not too dehydrated. Even our very nervous horse was fine on its first journey on the boat!

Hope it all goes well and good luck with the move!
 
Forgot to mention tell them its a horsebox when booking and remember to phone before leaving to check the sailing is still going ahead! Nothing worse then getting stuck at the docks for hours on end!
 
All horse lorries and boxes are checked routinely while travelling on ferries. I know cos I used to do it!!! :D I worked for years on the boats (still work for ferry company but office bound now) and once they knew I was horsey it was my job to check the trailers were secure and the horses not distressed while travelling. Some large lorries we allow the grooms to stay with the horses if they ask, only usually in the case of compeition or race horses though. Rest assured though they are checked and monitored and if the captain has any reason to think the journey will be too rough he will not allow live cargo onboard.
 
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