Sailing times

Times as published by Saltee Ferry (Three Sisters Cruise Company) and checked on 29 July 2026. Each departure is paired with its own pick-up: the crew give you a return time when you land, and the operator is explicit that you cannot come back on an earlier or later sailing because every crossing has a fixed passenger list. The 09:00 and 10:00 slots run on demand only, so they may not appear in the booking system on a quiet weekday. Be at the ferry gate 30 minutes before departure — late arrivals lose the booking outright, with no transfer and no refund. Note one wrinkle nobody flags: the Neale family, who own the islands, publish a visiting window of 11:30 to 16:30, which the two early-morning sailings sit outside.

Fares

Operator’s own prices, checked 29 July 2026. There is no one-way ticket — the fare is a return, because the boat is the only way off. Older figures still circulating online (€25, €30 and €40 adult returns) are out of date; ignore them. The operator does not do cancellations at all: you can reschedule by email up to 72 hours before, and refunds are issued only when the operator cancels for weather. Private charter runs April to June only and is advertised as 8–9 hours on the island rather than the standard three and a half. Those two numbers do not sit together. The Neale family, who own the islands, publish a visiting window of 11:30 to 16:30, and that is five hours. Either a charter is not bound by the owners’ window, or the 8–9 hours counts time afloat as well as ashore. Ask before you pay.

Route map

Great Saltee sits about 5 km off Kilmore Quay in St George’s Channel — the owners measure it at 3¼ statute miles — and every metre of the crossing is open water.

Taking a car

Cars and bikes are irrelevant here. There is nothing to drive or ride on Great Saltee and no way to land a vehicle, so leave the car in the free harbour park.

Read the prohibitions before you pack. Dogs and other pets are strictly prohibited on the islands: the operator states it, the owners state it, and the reason is 20,000-odd nesting seabirds. Drones are banned outright. So are fires and camping. Buggies are a bad idea, because the operator will only carry an extremely lightweight folding one, and once ashore you climb ancient stone steps off the beach onto worn tracks pitted by burrowing rabbits. There are no built paths anywhere on the island.

Can you do it in a day?

Yes, and in practice it is the only way to do it: overnight stays are refused outright by the owners, with no exceptions. In July and August the pattern is tight and predictable. Sail at 11:00, 12 noon or 13:00 and you are collected at 14:30, 15:30 or 16:30 respectively, which leaves roughly three hours ashore once the dinghy shuttle at each end is subtracted. May and June are more generous, up to four hours on the 13:00 sailing.

From Wexford town the whole thing works as a day out by bus and boat: route 390 down to the harbour, the 11:00 or noon crossing, back on the same road in the evening. From Dublin it does not work. The sailings finish too early for a same-day return by public transport.

Finding the harbour

Most visitors head for the marina pontoons by default. Wrong end. The boat goes from the far end of the working harbour, past the fish quay.

• Look for the yellow gate signposted ‘Saltee Ferry’ at the top of the harbour, right beside the boat launching slip. Gate open: walk down the gangway to the boat. Gate shut: wait for the skipper.
• Free public car parking adjacent to the harbour, and it fills fast on summer weekends. The operator’s own advice is to allow extra time for parking as well as for check-in.
• Arriving by bus, the stop is beside the same boat launching slip: get off, look right, and the ferry gate is there.
• Wexford Bus route 390 runs Wexford town to Kilmore Quay. It is the only scheduled bus that puts you at the slipway. See buses in Wexford for connections into town.
• Public toilets are at the harbour, on the right as you pass the pier wall towards the car park and playground. Use them. There are none on the island.
• Nearest rail is Wexford O’Hanrahan or Rosslare Europort, both with limited services and neither within walking distance of Kilmore Quay.

Worth knowing

Onward travel

• Wexford Bus route 390 back to Wexford town, from the stop at the boat launching slip: see buses in Wexford.
• Rosslare Europort is roughly half an hour east by road, for sailings to Wales: Rosslare to Fishguard and Rosslare to Pembroke Dock.
• Kilmore Quay village has a supermarket and restaurants along the harbour front. It is the only place to buy food for the day, because the island has none.

Booking

Booking is online only. The operator will not take a booking over the phone, full stop; the single exception is a group too large for the web system, handled by email through the office (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm). There is no ticket desk at the gate. Without the confirmation email you are not getting on the boat.

Capacity explains the rest. The boats are small. Visit Wexford’s listing puts each at a maximum of 12 passengers, which is why sailings go weeks ahead in puffin season. Date changes are possible up to 72 hours beforehand and must go by email; inside that window the booking is fixed. On a customer change of mind the operator does not offer cancellations or refunds at all.

What you are sailing to

Great Saltee is private property, and the family who own it are not in the ferry business. Michael Neale bought the island in December 1943, crowned himself Prince Michael the First of the Saltees, built a stone throne and an obelisk, and died in 1998. His family still own it. Their website is blunt about the arrangement: they have no connection or affiliation with any ferry operation and have never received a penny from visitors. You are on the island by their goodwill — nothing else.

Underfoot it is Pre-Cambrian rock, between 600 and 2,000 million years old: 219 acres of it, rising to a 198-foot south summit and still marked by the field walls from the days when the island was farmed. Grey seals breed here, one of very few colonies on the east coast, with up to 120 animals in autumn and around 20 pups a year. Then the part visitors underestimate. There are no facilities of any kind: no toilets, no shop, no water, no refreshments, no shelter. Bring everything you need. Take every scrap of litter home.

Accessibility

This is a verified no, not an omission. The operator’s own words: ‘The trip is not suitable for anyone with any limited mobility.’ Getting ashore means stepping from the ferry into a small dinghy, then out of the dinghy at the water’s edge onto sand that may be covered in kelp or loose, slippery stones, then up a flight of uneven ancient stone steps. There is no dock, no pier, no ramp. There is no alternative route off the beach.

On the island itself there are no surfaced paths at all, and the ground is broken up by rabbit burrows. Wheelchairs and mobility scooters cannot be carried. The operator asks that children be supervised constantly.

When the sea decides

The crossing is 20 minutes of genuinely open sea. The operator warns that you are exposed to wind and spray and stand a fair chance of getting wet before you even reach the island. Sheltered seating exists but is limited, and its own two descriptions of that seating do not quite agree: one page says ‘limited sheltered seating’, another says ‘inside sheltered seating’. Plan for the pessimistic version and pack a waterproof.

The landing is the part that actually gets cancelled. With no dock, conditions at the cove depend on both the weather and the tide, and they change day to day. Saltee Ferry reserves the right to cancel right up to the moment the boat is due to leave Kilmore Quay. If it does, the fare goes back to the card you paid with, normally within three to five working days, or you can rebook another slot. That is the one circumstance in which a refund is given.

Frequently asked questions