Ferry Lymington - Yarmouth

Lymington – Yarmouth with Wightlink

This route links Lymington with Yarmouth, operated by Wightlink. The two ferry terminals are about 6 kilometres (3 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.

Descended from Solent services that began in the early nineteenth century, Wightlink has traded under that name since 1990. It runs a fast catamaran from Portsmouth to Ryde (about 22 minutes) and car ferries from Portsmouth to Fishbourne (about 45 minutes) and from Lymington to Yarmouth (about 40 minutes).

Lymington

Lymington is a yachting town with a deeper past. A short drive east, at Buckler's Hard on the Beaulieu River, Georgian shipwrights built warships for the Royal Navy, among them HMS Agamemnon, launched in 1781 and one of Nelson's favourite ships; the double row of brick cottages that housed the workers still stands, and there is a maritime museum. Back in Lymington, the Saturday market has been held for centuries, and the salt marshes along the shore were once lined with salterns that boiled seawater for salt. The yacht harbour is one of the busiest on the south coast, and the Wightlink car ferry crosses the Solent to Yarmouth in around forty minutes.

Yarmouth (Isle of Wight)

Yarmouth is the island's western gate, and one of its best-preserved pieces of Tudor military engineering stands beside the ferry terminal: Yarmouth Castle, an artillery fort built by Henry VIII in 1547, with stone that probably came from the demolished Quarr Abbey. From here the wild western end of the island is easy to reach. The Needles, a row of chalk stacks with a lighthouse at the end, lie a short drive away, and at Alum Bay the cliffs are banded in sands of many colours. Nearby Freshwater was the home of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who lived at Farringford and is commemorated by a tall cross on Tennyson Down.