Ferry Plymouth - Roscoff

Plymouth – Roscoff with Brittany Ferries

This route links Plymouth with Roscoff, operated by Brittany Ferries. The two ferry terminals are about 180 kilometres (100 nautical miles) apart in a straight line. Use the search engine above for current timetables and fares, or use the Direct Ferries button at the top of the page to compare the sailings.

Brittany Ferries was created in 1972 by Breton farmers who wanted to sell their vegetables in Britain, and began operating from Roscoff in 1973. Based in Roscoff and Portsmouth, it links Brittany and Normandy with Plymouth and Portsmouth, and runs overnight crossings to Santander, Bilbao and Cork. Since September 2024 it has also been the majority owner of Condor Ferries, whose Channel Islands services are being brought under the Brittany Ferries name.

Plymouth

Plymouth has launched more voyages of discovery than most ports. Captain James Cook left Plymouth Sound in August 1768 aboard HMS Endeavour on the first of his three Pacific expeditions. The Royal Navy shaped the city: the vast Royal William Yard, a Grade I listed naval victualling depot built in the early nineteenth century, is now a waterfront collection of restaurants, galleries and flats. Plymouth Gin has been distilled at the Black Friars Distillery, inside a former Dominican friary, since 1793, and it is England's oldest working gin distillery, with tours for visitors. The National Marine Aquarium, the largest in the UK, makes a good rainy-day stop before an overnight sailing to Roscoff or Santander.

Roscoff

In August 1548 the young Mary, Queen of Scots, stepped ashore at Roscoff on her way to the French court, where she was to be raised and betrothed to the Dauphin. Roscoff has been a landing place ever since, for the "Johnnies" who sailed the other way with strings of pink onions, and for today's ferry passengers from Plymouth. The onion still carries a protected designation of origin. Look out for the old granite shipowners' houses along the quay and the Station Biologique, a marine research laboratory founded in the nineteenth century. A boat trip of about 15 minutes across the channel takes you to the Île de Batz, a small island of fields and beaches with an exotic garden created from 1897 by Georges Delaselle.