A NAME has been announced for the five-years-late-and-counting ferry being built at Ferguson's shipyard in Port Glasgow.

Port Glasgow based ports and ferries agency Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited has announced that the vessel which has been known as Hull 802 will be named MV Glen Rosa.

This follows a public vote which saw nearly 5,000 entries.

MV Glen Rosa, which will be known as Gleann Ruasaidh in Gaelic, was the most popular name, garnering 52 per cent of the votes.

The vessel, along with sister ship MV Glen Sannox, is still under construction at Ferguson Marine.

Last week it emerged that there would be further delays in the delivery of both vessels due to changes ordered by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency.

MV Glen Rosa is now due to launch in March 2024.

The bill for the two ferries already stands at around £300m, up massively from the initial £97m contract.

CMAL says both of the ferries 'will play a vital role in providing a fully flexible year-round service for Arran'.

Kevin Hobbs, chief executive of CMAL said: “Though we are disappointed in the delay to launching the vessel reported by Ferguson's last week, we understand that the priority is ensuring that the newly named MV Glen Rosa achieves Maritime and Coastguard (MCA) approval.

"We continue to work closely with the team at Ferguson Marine and can see great progress being made towards the delivery of both MV Glen Sannox and MV Glen Rosa.”

MV Glen Rosa will be one of six new vessels due to join the CMAL fleet before the end of 2025, following a commitment of £695m from the Scottish Government for the years 2021-26.

The 102-metre dual fuel ferries will be able to operate on both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and marine diesel.

The programme has been blighted by changes, problems and delays and it pushed the Port yard into administration before being nationalised.