When the boats run

Taken from the operator’s own times page at inishturkpassengerferry.ie, checked 5 August 2026. One warning about those season dates. The page carries no year, and the changeover it prints (winter to 30 March, summer from 31 March, back to winter on 27 October) matches the clock-change weekends of an earlier year: 31 March and 27 October were the 2024 changeover dates, 30 March and 26 October the 2025 ones. In 2026 the clocks moved on 29 March and move again on 25 October, so the printed dates are at least a season out of date. That is our reading of the evidence, not a statement from the operator. Ring before you build a plan around a date near either end of March or October.

Fares and tickets

These are the maximum fares the operator publishes, not a live quote from the booking engine. The same sheet sets a second scale for the connecting road service: €7 single and €12 return for a visiting adult, €4 and €7 for an islander, free on a Travel Pass. The fare sheet is published as an image, and the file was uploaded to the operator’s site in June 2023.

Route map

Roonagh Quay looks west from the south shore of Clew Bay; Inishturk lies 14.5 km out in open Atlantic water.

Planning a day visit

Yes, in both seasons, which is not what most people assume about a 50-minute crossing to an island of 56 people.

Summer, 31 March to 26 October: out on the 10:30 from Roonagh, back on the 17:15 from Inishturk. That is close to six hours ashore.

Weekdays in winter are tighter but still workable: 09:30 out, 15:30 back, around five hours. Winter weekends give you less, because the morning boat does not leave Roonagh until 11:00 while the return still sails at 15:30. Call that three and a half hours, minus whatever the sea decides.

Those durations are our arithmetic from the published departure times and the island community’s stated 50-minute crossing. The operator publishes no arrival times at all.

Doing it by public transport is the hard part. Route 450 puts you in Louisburgh at 09:19 on weekdays, 6 km and 71 minutes short of a 10:30 sailing; coming back, the boat lands around 18:05 and the last 450 leaves Louisburgh at 18:50. Both gaps are walkable on paper and unforgiving in practice. The operator’s on-demand bus from Westport exists precisely because of this.

Tickets in advance

Book the return, or don’t bother. The online engine sells a single product called “Return trip from Roonagh to InishTurk”, in which you choose an outbound sailing and a return sailing; we found no one-way ticket on sale. You can also buy at the office in the pier car park, though that office publishes summer hours only.

Free Travel Pass holders should read the small print, because it is unusual. The operator states that free places are limited in number, that a card holder can reserve one from that allocation by ringing 098 23737, and that once the allocation is gone every remaining Travel Pass booking carries an online booking fee of €5 per person return. Only the named person may book. The card must be in date and must be shown with the booking at boarding.

That 098 23737 number belongs to the Clare Island Ferry Company. The Inishturk service also lists Alan on 087 9004115 and Brian on 086 8515003. Both numbers appear on the Clare Island Ferry Company’s own contact page, so the two brands are plainly connected.

On the other side

Fifty-six people. That is the Census 2022 count for Inishturk, against 51 in 2016 and 53 in 2011, and it makes the island one of the smallest inhabited places on the Irish coast. Clare Island, off the same pier, had 138. The island lies 14.5 km out.

Almost everything a visitor needs is in one building. The Inishturk Community Club, which the island describes as community-run, holds the bar, the Caher View restaurant and the island shop. Be warned that the island’s own website gives two different sets of shop hours: its day-trip itinerary says 13:00 to 15:00 Monday to Saturday, while a banner on the visitor page says the shop and info point opens daily 13:00 to 16:00 until the end of August. Check on arrival.

Beds are limited and named. The island lists Inishturk Cottages for self-catering plus three bed and breakfasts: Tranaun House, Ocean View House and North Road House. Ocean View lists a pickup at the ferry.

One waymarked route is registered nationally. Sport Ireland lists the Mountain Common Loop at 6.6 km, 2 hours 30 minutes, 130 m of ascent, graded moderate, waymarked with a purple arrow on a yellow background, starting and finishing at the pier. Local listings also mention a shorter inner walk.

Football is where the island measures itself against its neighbour. At the 2023 All-Island Football Championship, played on Clare Island on 27 May, Clare Island edged Inishturk in the men’s semi-final and then beat Bere Island 0-6 to 0-4 in the final. Arranmore, Inishbofin, the Aran Islands and Whiddy were also there.

Another lifeline arrived in 2025. Minister Dara Calleary opened a helipad on the island on 2 May that year, built for over €730,000 with €536,413.81 from the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht and match funding from Mayo County Council. Mayo County Council says it has “already been used several times by the Irish Coast Guard”.

Practical notes

Accessible travel

The operator publishes nothing. Its website runs to nine pages in total, and it contains no accessibility statement, no terms and conditions, no description of boarding, no mention of steps or ramps or wheelchair spaces. That is the finding, and it is worth stating plainly rather than guessing.

On land, the island community does slightly better. Its visitor page says the Community Club and restaurant are wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets, that service animals are welcome, and that some trails are uneven or steep; it asks people with specific needs to make contact in advance. The page on the same site headed “Accessibility” turns out to be a web accessibility statement about WCAG 2.2 Level AA, with nothing about physical access at all.

If you need to know how you get from the pontoon onto the deck, ring the boat.

Getting to the pier

Roonagh Quay is a single pier with a car park, and it handles two islands. The Clare Island boats leave from the same pier, so read the board before you queue.

• Where it is. Roonagh Point, roughly 6 km west of Louisburgh on the R378, about 27 km from Westport. The ferry office gives its Eircode as F28W8P3.
• Tickets. The Inishturk Passenger Ferry office sits in the pier car park, not on the pier itself. Published hours are 09:00 to 18:30 daily, summer only. Card or cash both work.
• Parking. Fáilte Ireland’s Discover Ireland listing for O’Malley Ferries publishes the line: “Car parking is free and CCTV monitored.” A Clare Island accommodation provider, Macalla Farm, says the same in its own words, describing a car park that “is safe, with CCTV cameras, and is used by islanders”. No Mayo County Council page we found repeats either claim, and no capacity figure is published anywhere.
• Parking is the pressure point. In July 2024 Mayo County Council told a municipal district meeting it was looking at buying more land at Roonagh; reserving spaces for islanders that year “wasn’t feasible and could isolate visitors”. The island’s own site warns of congestion and tells summer visitors to arrive early.
• The same pier serves Clare Island, on a separate contract and a separate timetable. We cover it at Roonagh to Clare Island.
• Getting here without a car. Bus Éireann route 450, Dooagh to Louisburgh via Westport, stops at Louisburgh (Hudsons Pantry westbound, Stauntons eastbound). That is still about 6 km short of the pier, and no scheduled bus covers the last stretch. On the current timetable, valid from 27 July 2025, Monday to Friday arrivals into Louisburgh are 07:54, 09:19, 12:17, 14:23, 16:52 and 18:44; departures back towards Westport are 08:00, 10:00, 12:30, 14:35, 17:15 and 18:50.
• The ferry operator runs its own bus. Roonagh Pier to Westport town, on demand, reservation only, on 087 2234012. The island’s day-trip itinerary says to board it 45 minutes before the sailing and to book at least 12 hours ahead. Fares for it are capped by the same State schedule as the boat.

Weather and cancellations

This is open Atlantic, and the operator says so in the only way that matters: if a sailing is cancelled for adverse sea and weather you get a full refund, or you travel on the next available boat.

Refund deadlines, on the other hand, are published twice and do not agree with each other. On the times and fares page the operator says a full refund applies if you cancel more than 24 hours before departure and none inside 24 hours. On the booking page for the return ticket, the same operator says 48 hours in both sentences. Assume 48 and you cannot lose.

Winter is the sharper risk. Two sailings a day, no midday fallback, and a boat that has to cross about fourteen kilometres of unsheltered water each way.

Taking a car

No vehicle deck for visitors, and no published bicycle or dog fare on the passenger boat. The booking engine sells six passenger categories and nothing else: adult, student card holder, child 5 to 18, child under 5, pensioner with a Travel Pass, pensioner without one.

Freight is a separate service on a separate contract. O’Malley Ferries (Clare Island) Ltd runs the year-round cargo boat to Roonagh, Clare Island and Inishturk, and its published tariff is where the island’s real economy shows: a bicycle at €3 single, a car at €40, a sheep at €2.50, a wheelie bin at €5.50, a headstone with kerbing at €18. Inishturk gets cargo calls on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays; Wednesday belongs to Clare Island.

Dogs are welcome on the island itself, on a lead near sheep and nesting birds, per the island’s visitor FAQ. Whether the ferry crew will take one, and at what price, is not written down anywhere we could find. Ask on the phone.

Questions people ask