A popular service of ferries from Fleetwood operated from early Victorian Times. Those first ferries sailed to Larne in Northern Ireland and Douglas on the Isle of Man.
Fleetwood Ferry Port and passenger terminal is owned and operated by ABP. It’s been closed since Stena Line ceased to operate the Northern Ireland route. That was Christmas Eve in December 2010.
Three Ferries into Fleetwood
The three Stena Ferries sailed between Fleetwood and Larne from 1980 to 2010. Known as the ‘Three Sisters’, they were the Puma, Bison and Buffalo.
Thanks to Barry Jarman who kindly sent us a couple of photos from his own collection of ‘Buffalo’ in Fleetwood dock.
All three ‘Sisters’ were laid up in Belfast Harbour when the service ended. Eventually they were bought by a Russian Federation Company named “AnRussTrans”. Their new job was to transport materials and cargo to and from Turkey to Saudi Arabia.
Did you know? They transported goods and personnel to the Sochi Winter Olympics of 2014.
After that they were all sent to the breakers yards in Aliaga in February 2014.
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Bison (below) was renamed Ant 1
Puma (below) was renamed Ant 2
Buffalo (below) was renamed Anna Marine
Find out More
There’s more information and photos on the NIFerry Site, which is the source of this information about the fate of the three Fleetwood ferries.
More about Ferries from Fleetwood
Pleasure and commercial sailings to the Isle of Man, Ardrossan, Barrow and Belfast started with the Steamers, as long ago as the 1860s.
The new ‘tourists’ would travel by train to Fleetwood, to stay at the North Euston Hotel. Then depart for their onward journey to the Lake District and Cumbria by steamer boat. Retrace their journey in this video –
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One hundred years later, the last regular ferry to the Isle of Man sailed in 1961. Although there were sporadic journeys after that date, up to the closure of the terminal.
The container port facility on Dock Street was created in 1973. The service delivered goods to Larne in Northern Ireland. Later, in 1975, it became a roll-on-roll-off service.
By then, Dock Street was largely derelict and the container port did help to regenerate the area somewhat. It also led to better road access for the freight lorries using the terminal, although that’s not especially apparent today.
The next video is filmed during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a walk round in the general area of the container port/Dock Street and the seafront.
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Daily Ferries
P&O operated a twice daily route. Then Stena Line bought the route in 2004 and increased the service to three times a day.
Unfortunately sailings ended at the end of 2010 and the container port now stands empty and disused once again.
Not the Knott End Ferry!
There is, of course a popular ferry service which still runs from Fleetwood. Very much smaller than it’s other seagoing relatives, is the Fleetwood to Knott End ferry.
This carries day trippers and residents between Fleetwood and Knott End and the various villages Over Wyre.
While you’re here…
Have a look at the homepage of the Visit Fleetwood website for more of the latest updates.
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Always nice to see Fleetwood on film/video, but you’re wrong about the old Fleetwood Railway station. The wonderful [original] station was further down Queens Terrace, nearer the new lifeboat base. The old station was terribly neglected for many years, until it was closed and demolished. The terminus for Fleetwood was moved to Dock Street. The Wyre Branch lost its Passenger traffic, but the line continued with several Freight trains a day- all serving ICI. The furthest any train came to Fleetwood after mid 1970s, were the sometimes daily oil tanks which went just beyond ‘Burn Naze South’ signal box before backing into the ICI’s oil fired power Station.
Some days, there would be 10 train movements along the Branch between Burn Naze South and ‘Poulton No 3’ signal box. I was a Rlf Signalman for 10 yrs on the Fylde Coast area. (1978-88). Perhaps the last of Fleetwood’s great times.
The old Fleetwood Station could and should have been saved as part of a Heritage area to include the Nth Euston Hotel and the old Victoria pub on Queens Terrace. (Once the oldest in Fleetwood). But our Planners had little imagination, or love for Fleetwood. Once a proud sea port and the largest deep sea fishing port on the UK’s West Coast. And as a final memory of old Fleetwood, there were once as many fish [related] trains at night, as Passenger trains during the day.
Jack D. Harrison.
Nice to read peoples memories of the ferries from Fleetwood , but what’s left now ? A derelict wasteland surrounded by spiked metal fences topped with barbed and razor yes RAZOR wire ! Come on ABP clean up your act and give Fleetwood an area to be proud of .
It is such a shame that it closed the ferries from Fleetwood to Ireland. I would love to see the service re-opened especially now as could work well for tourists.
No mention of the B+I Line vessel “Tipperary” which joined the “Buffalo” on the Fleetwood to Dublin run. This vessel arrived in 1979 arriving at approx midnight and sailing about 4 hours later.
The Pandoro operation was a door-to-door service using its own fleet of lorries and dedicated P&O vessels. It was not a container terminal. Services with Bison and Biuffalo commenced in 1975, not 1980: Bison sailed to Larne, whilst Buffalo served Dublin, initially in partnership with B+I LIne. Puma came later, as did Ibex. It was a P&O operation and the transfer to Stena came many, many years later.
That’s right Chris, Fleetwood was never a container port, but Roll on – Roll off. P&O operated the twice daily service successfully for many years, when Stena took over they upped it to 3 boats a day, then closed the service saying it wasn’t viable.
Titanic anchor went from Fleetwood 1911 to Belfast on one of the Dukes.
Well pointed out Chris ?
used to sail on the buffalo in the late seventies to dublin with my van every month for years . Some great memorys with other drivers of which there were only 12 allowed to travel with their vehicles .
Other drivers were taken to liverpool to catch the liverpool ferry to dublin to meet up with their trucks at dubin docks.
i wonder where some of my friends are now .