Duke of Lancaster Ship: Everything You Need to Know for Your Visit

Where do I park to see The Duke of Lancaster and where’s the shipwreck?

The ship is beached at Llannerch-y-Mor near Mostyn, North Wales. There’s free parking in a huge car park at Holywell (CH8 9DX).

How to Find the Duke of Lancaster Ship

Having parked look for the sign saying “Welcome ABAKHAN”

To the left of the sign you’ll see a gate. Go through the gate and keep walking until you see a bridge… go across the bridge and keep going until you reach the ship. It’s impossible to miss…it’s huge!

How old is the Duke of Lancaster and did she have any sister ships?

The ship was built in 1955 by Harland & Wolff in Belfast for British Railways. She was used as a railway steamer passenger ship between 1956 and 1979. Her sister ships were the Duke of Rothesay and the Duke of Argyll and were the last passenger-only steamers built for British Railways.

British Railways? But that’s trains not ships!

Interestingly, at the time British Railways was also a ferry operator and the ships were designed to be used as passenger ferries and cruise ships.

Fun Fact – Harland and Wolff famously built the RMS Titanic and launched her on 31 May 1911. The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912.

How big is The Duke of Lancaster?

Her gross tonnage is 4,450, pol. She’s 114.63 metres long and 17.46 metres wide. Her draught, which is her depth underwater is 4.54 metres. She has 2 Parmetrada steam turbines which were built by Parsons Engineering at Wallsend, North East England and her top speed is 21 knots which is 24 mph.

Fun Facts – At the time of writing this blog I saw Van Morrison in concert and was interested to read that his dad George Morrison was an electrician for Harland and Wolff. Van Morrison is now quite elderly so the chances are his dad may have helped build this ship back in the 1950’s.

George Best’s dad Richard ‘Dickie’ Best also worked for the ship builder!

Where did The Duke of Lancaster sail to, and what happened to her?

She sailed to the Scottish islands and even further afield to Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Spain.

However, during the 1960’s ships like the Duke of Lancaster were being replaced with purpose-built car ferries, as more and more people owned cars and wanted to take their car on holiday. Rather than going to the huge expense of replacing all their passenger ferries with car ferries, British Railways came up with the ingenious idea to modify their fleet into car ferries, whilst gradually replacing these ships with modern car ferries.

She was retired from being a cruise ship and was converted to a car ferry, and on 25 April 1970 she returned to service. Her main deck had to be rebuilt to take cars with a door at her stern for the cars to drive onto the deck.

She now had enough space on deck for 105 cars, 1200 passengers and cabins for 400 passengers.

When did the Duke of Lancaster ship stop being a car ferry?

The three ships continued to ferry cars and passengers from Heysham (Lancashire) to Belfast until 5 April 1975 when the service was stopped.

The Duke of Lancaster was then used on the Fishguard (South Wales) to Rosslare (Southern Ireland) crossing, and later the Holyhead (Anglesey) to Dun Laoghaire (Dublin) service. This was stopped in November 1978, and she was laid up at Barrow-in-Furness (Cumbria).

Didn’t the Duke of Lancaster become a ‘Fun Ship’?

On 10 August 1979 it was decided that she would become a leisure centre, all be it a static one. Visitors could tour the engine room and bridge and enjoy a market. The owners also wanted to create a 300-room hotel on-board but failed to get planning permission. It was a constant battle with the local council. The council refused to give planning permission because the road leading to the ship was not suitable for fire engines and ambulances to drive down in an emergency. The ‘Fun Ship’ closed in 2004 and now she’s rotting away in dry dock at Holywell.

Who now owns the Duke of Lancaster and has anyone been inside recently?

Sadly, it’s not possible to go aboard and it’s not possible to walk all the way around it or climb aboard, but you do get a good view of it anyway. People have attempted to go aboard but it is trespassing and there is CCTV.

Antony Rowley and The Duke of Lancaster Appreciation Society have owned her since 2021. The ship is abandoned and is rotting away.

However, a few brave people have ventured inside and apparently, it’s a 1970’s time capsule with lots of classic arcade machines, patterned carpets and red velvet armchairs. There’s even a bar with a padded and buttoned bar front! Apparently, there were about 50 arcade machines which were eventually sold off to collectors in 2011which had to be carefully removed from the ship by crane!

Fun Fact – The ship was featured in the 2011 series of BBC 2’s ‘Coast’

What about the ship’s future?

Over the years there have been lots of rumours and plans regarding the ship’s future including some quite wacky ideas like turning it into a ‘zombie’ experience, a RAF training site for missile operations, a museum, and a Halloween attraction including an escape room! None of which have ever materialised.