With ferry fares cheaper than ever, visiting the islands has never been more popular.
Now operator CalMac has revealed its most popular routes after a query from a politician.
And Kate Forbes MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch said she was surprised that the Mallaig to Armadale crossing proved more popular than Ullapool to Stornoway.
The statistics also showed that the Skye to Mallaig route was the most popular crossing for coaches across Scotland.
According to 2017 statistics, Ardrossan to Brodick had the highest number of passengers with 844,198 on the ferry, followed 745,619 on the Largs to Millport route.
During the same year there were 713,906 residents and holidaymakers on board the Wemyss Bay to Rothesay ferry, 670,248 on the Oban to Craignure boat and 285,483 passengers on the Mallaig to Armadale vessel.
This compares to 275,737 on the Ullapool to Stornoway ferry last year.
Ms Forbes said there had been a rise in passenger numbers since the introduction of RET, Scottish Government subsidies.
She said: “RET is vitally important to the islands and has arguably done more than anything else to level the playing field for island communities who need to travel.
“Mallaig to Armadale figures were up by 10% compared to the fateful summer of 2016. Importantly that means that visitors will be travelling through the Sleat peninsula, where communities have worked long and hard to build up a viable industry.
“In the midst of the important debates about ferries and not least the importance of the MV Coruisk to the Armadale-Mallaig crossing, it’s important to celebrate the huge contribution that RET has made to the island economies.”
Coruisk was re-deployed to Mull in 2016 with two replacement vessels brought in to operate the route. The two smaller ferries had to use fixed slipways instead of linkspans, as the MV Coruisk had, and were unable to operate on numerous occasions because of low tides.
