Stornoway (; ) is the main town, and by far the largest, of the
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland.
It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...
(or Western Isles), and the capital of
Lewis and Harris
Lewis and Harris (), or Lewis with Harris, is a Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, around from the Scottish mainland.
With an area of (approximately 1% the size of Great Britain) it is the largest island in Scotland and the list of isl ...
in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
.
The town's population is around 6,953,
making it the third-largest island town in Scotland after
Kirkwall
Kirkwall (, , or ; ) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. First mentioned in the ''Orkneyinga saga'', it is today the location of the headquarters of the Orkney Islands Council and a transport hub wi ...
in
Orkney
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...
and
Lerwick
Lerwick ( or ; ; ) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. It is the northernmost major settlement within the United Kingdom.
Centred ...
in
Shetland
Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...
. The historical
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of Stornoway, which includes various nearby villages, has a combined population of just over 10,000.
The
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
for, gd, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, italic=no, Council of the Western Isles, paren=left; ) is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for ''Na h-Eileanan an Iar'' (the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides), one of the 32 co ...
(the Western Isles Council) measures population in a different area: the ''Stornoway settlement'' area,
Laxdale
Laxdale () is a village in the Scottish Outer Hebrides, on the Isle of Lewis. Although nominally a distinct village, Laxdale is now effectively a suburb of Stornoway. Laxdale is also within the parish of Stornoway. There is a school called Laxda ...
,
Sandwick and Newmarket; in 2019, the estimated population for this area was 6,953.
Stornoway is an important port and the administrative centre of the Outer Hebrides. It is home to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and a variety of educational, sporting and media establishments. Until relatively recently, observance of the Christian
Sabbath
In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...
(Sunday) has been associated with Hebridean culture. Recent changes mean that Sundays on Lewis now more closely resemble those in most parts of the Southern Isles, i.e.
Benbecula
Benbecula ( ; or ) is an island of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Scotland. In the 2011 census, it had a resident population of 1,283 with a sizable percentage of Roman Catholics. It is in a zone administered by ...
,
South Uist
South Uist (, ; ) is the second-largest island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. At the 2011 census, it had a usually resident population of 1,754: a decrease of 64 since 2001. The island, in common with the rest of the Hebrides, is one of the ...
,
Barra
Barra (; or ; ) is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by the Vatersay Causeway.
In 2011, the population was 1,174. ...
, and
Vatersay
The island of Vatersay (; ) is the southernmost and westernmost inhabited island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and the settlement of Caolas on the north coast of the island is the westernmost permanently inhabited place in Scotland. The m ...
, and on mainland Scotland.
History

The town was founded by
Vikings
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
in the early 9th century, with the
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
name ''Stjórnavágr''. The settlement grew up around a sheltered
natural harbour
A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...
and became a hub for people from all over the island, who travelled to Stornoway either by family boat or by horse-drawn coach, for onward travel to and trade with the rest of Scotland and further afield.
At some point in the mid-1500s, the already ancient MacLeod castle in Stornoway, which had prior been the ancient clan seat of Clan MacNicol, 'fell victim to the cannons of the Duke of Argyle'. By the early 1600s rumbling trade wars came to a head, and all further government attempts to curtail traditional shipping rights were firmly resisted by the islanders, as was an attempt by
James VI
James may refer to:
People
* James (given name)
* James (surname)
* James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician
* James, brother of Jesus
* King James (disambiguation), various kings named James
* Prince Ja ...
,
King of Scotland
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British cons ...
, to establish on the island the Scottish trading company known as the
Fife Adventurers around 1598.
As a result, James VI transferred Lewis to the
MacKenzies of Seaforth in 1610.
In 1844, the MacKenzies sold Stornoway, and the Isle of Lewis as a whole, to
Sir James Matheson
Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS (17 November 179631 December 1878), was a Scottish opium trader and taipan. Born in Shiness, Lairg, Sutherland, Scotland, he was the son of Captain Donald Matheson. He attended Edinburgh ...
. He and his descendants built the present
Lews Castle
Lews Castle (Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal Leòdhais'') is a Victorian era castle located west of the town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It was built in the years 1844–51 as a country house for Sir James Matheson who had bought the who ...
on a hill overlooking the bay of Stornoway.
Fragmentary ruins of the old Stornoway Castle had survived in the bay until that time, and can even be seen in Victorian photographs, but Matheson destroyed them in 1882, in order to expand the harbour; a few remains of Stornoway Castle still remain, hidden beneath pier number 1, close to the shore, slightly west of centre. By 1863, the town had become a
police burgh.
[History](_blank)
/ref>
In 1918, Matheson's great-nephew sold the island to William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme. Lord Leverhulme held the island for a short time. His economic plans for the island (together with various business setbacks) overstretched his finances. Faced with failure in Lewis, he gave Stornoway parish to the people of the town. The Stornoway Trust was formed and continues to administer the parish.
During World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the Stornoway aerodrome was used by the military, and the town was a base for anti-submarine planes and a fuelling station for other aircraft. The castle was used as a hospital and living quarters for the personnel of 700 Naval Air Squadron. Between 1986 and 1993, the airport was employed as a "NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
Forward Operating Base for Air Defence aircraft protecting the fleet" for six weeks each year.
Stornoway Town Hall was officially re-opened for community use in March 2012.
Economy
The Isle of Lewis website states that the town's "economy is a mix of traditional businesses like fishing, Harris Tweed and farming, with more recent influences like tourism, the oil industry and commerce". The sheltered harbour has been important for centuries; it was named Steering Bay by Vikings
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
who often visited.
A 2018 report states that the fishing industry's primary focus is on aquaculture (fish farming). A conventional fishery still existed, "composed solely of inshore shellfish vessels targeting prawns, crabs and lobsters around the islands and throughout the Minch".
Harbour and maritime industry
On 1 January 1919, '' Iolaire'' sank at the entrance of the harbour, one of the worst maritime disasters in UK waters, with a death toll of 205 men, who were returning home from World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
Today, the harbour hosts a fishing fleet (and associated shoreside services) somewhat reduced from its heyday, a small marina and moorings for pleasure craft, a small shipyard and slipway, three larger piers for commercial traffic and Stornoway Lifeboat Station, run by the RNLI
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest of the lifeboat services operating around the coasts of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways.
Founded in 1824 ...
and home to a , ''Tom Sanderson''. His Majesty's Coastguard
His Majesty's Coastguard (HMCG) is the section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible, through the Secretary of State for Transport to Parliament, for the initiation and co-ordination of all maritime search and rescue (SAR) within th ...
operates a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre from a building near the harbour.
A lighthouse, seaweed processing plant and a renewable energy manufacturing yard are situated on Arnish Point at the mouth of the harbour and visually dominate the approaches. Arnish Point is also proposed by AMEC
Amec Foster Wheeler plc was a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In October 2017, it was acquired by Wood Group.
It was focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, ...
as the landfall for its proposed private sub-sea cable which would export the electricity generated from the Lewis Windpower wind farm
A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...
. A planning application for 181 turbines was submitted to the Scottish Executive; but in 2008, the Scottish Government rejected the plans.
Since then Lewis Windpower has obtained planning consent for a maximum of 36 wind turbines to be sited to the west of Stornoway on land held by community-owned Stornoway Trust Estate.
The Arnish area was also surveyed by SSE for a second sub-sea cable, but lost out in favour of Gravir to the south as the preferred site. SSE preferred Arnish Point as of 2016. The manufacturing yard was originally established in the 1970s as a fabrication plant for the oil industry, but suffered regular boom and bust cycles. The downturn in business from the North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea.
In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian ...
industry in recent years led to a move away from serving this market. The yard is now proposed as a key business in the development of the whole Arnish Point industrial estate and has received large amounts of funding in recent years.
In 2007, the Arnish yard was taken over by its third tenant in as many years. Cambrian Engineering fell into liquidation as did Aberdeen-owned Camcal Ltd with relatively large-scale redundancies. Both firms were affected by the absence of a regular stream of orders and left a chain of large debts impacting upon local suppliers. Altissimo Ltd is a new firm backed by a group of Swiss and Dutch investors, and has purchased the Camcal name from the previous operator. In December 2007, the yard won a contract to construct 49 towers for wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
s in Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. This will ensure employment for around 70 employees for over six months.
As of 2021, the yard is now operated by Harland and Wolff
Harland & Wolff Holdings plc is a British shipbuilding and Metal fabrication, fabrication company headquartered in London with sites in Belfast, Arnish yard, Arnish, Appledore, Torridge, Appledore and Methil. It specialises in ship repair, ship ...
.
In September 2020, Stornoway Port Authority announced that development of a new £49 million deep water terminal was to go ahead following the approval of marine licences by Marine Scotland
The Scottish Government, Scottish Government's Marine Directorate () is a Directorates of the Scottish Government, directorate of the Scottish Government responsible for managing Scottish seas, Scotland's seas and freshwater fish, freshwater f ...
.
The new multi-purpose terminal will provide berthing for vessels up to 360m long with a water depth of 10m below Chart datum
A chart datum is the water surface serving as origin (or coordinate surface) of depths displayed on a nautical chart and for reporting and predicting tide heights. A chart datum is generally derived from some tidal phase, in which case it is ...
, a ferry berth, and 6.5 hectares of land for unloading, storage and industrial uses.
In April 2022, Stornoway Port Authority announced they had signed a £49 million construction contract for their new Deep Water Terminal. The contract was awarded to building and civil engineering firm McLaughlin and Harvey. Work is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
Wind farm
The UK's largest community-owned wind farm, the 9 MW Beinn Ghrideag, is located outside Stornoway and is operated by Point and Sandwick Trust (PST). In February 2021, that organisation was shortlisted for the title of Best Community Energy Project at the Scottish Highlands and Islands Renewable Energy Awards. A February 2021 report stated that this operation "already has a number of awards and multiple nominations". Point and Sandwick Trust helps fund community activities "because of the revenue created at our wind farm, Beinn Ghrideag. The 3 turbine, 9 MW scheme is built on common grazings land on the Isle of Lewis".
Climate
Like much of the British Isles, Stornoway has an oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
, with relatively little variation of temperature and damp conditions throughout the year. Winters are exceptionally mild for such a northerly location; average nighttime low temperatures in January and February, the coldest months, are above , while daytime high temperatures average about . Summers are cool, due to influence from the Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
; average daytime high temperatures in July and August are just over . Precipitation falls mostly as rain (though snow occasionally falls in winter), and October through January are the wettest months due to frequent, sometimes intense storms from the North Atlantic, which can bring heavy rain and high winds. April through July represents a markedly drier season, when storm frequency and intensity diminish markedly. June is the driest month in Stornoway, averaging of precipitation, while January is the wettest month, averaging .
A quirk of the climate on Stornoway and the Isle of Harris more widely is that it records the highest frequency of hail in the UK, with 30 or more days per year of measurable hail falling.
Transport
The Caledonian MacBrayne
Caledonian MacBrayne (), in short form CalMac, is the trade name of CalMac Ferries Ltd, the major operator of passenger and vehicle ferries to the west coast of Scotland, serving ports on the mainland and 22 of the major islands. It is a subsid ...
-operated ferry has been sailing since 2015, from Stornoway harbour to Ullapool on the Scottish mainland, taking 2 hours 30 minutes. There are an average of two return crossings a day: more in summer than in winter. The former main ship on the route, (1995), used to carry the freight crossing; however, she has now been reassigned elsewhere by CalMac. This means that MV ''Loch Seaforth'' is often heavily congested, particularly during the summer months.
The idea of an undersea tunnel linking Lewis and Harris to the Scottish mainland was suggested in early 2007. One of the possible routes, between Stornoway and Ullapool, would be over long: the longest road tunnel in the world.
Stornoway is the hub of bus routes in Lewis: buses run to Point, Ness, Back
The human back, also called the dorsum (: dorsa), is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral c ...
and Tolsta, Uig, the West Side, Lochs and Tarbert, Harris. These buses are operated by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
for, gd, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, italic=no, Council of the Western Isles, paren=left; ) is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for ''Na h-Eileanan an Iar'' (the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides), one of the 32 co ...
and several private operators.
Stornoway Airport is located next to the village of Melbost, east of the town; there are flights to Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, Inverness
Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...
and Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, all operated by Loganair
Loganair is a Scottish regional airline headquartered at Glasgow Airport in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. The airline primarily operates domestic flights within the United Kingdom. It is the largest regional airline in Scotland by passenger ...
. and Benbecula
Benbecula ( ; or ) is an island of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Scotland. In the 2011 census, it had a resident population of 1,283 with a sizable percentage of Roman Catholics. It is in a zone administered by ...
operated by Hebridean Air Services. The airport is also the base of an HM Coastguard Search & Rescue Sikorsky S-92
The Sikorsky S-92 is an American twin-engine medium-lift helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft for the civil and military helicopter markets. The S-92 was developed from the Sikorsky S-70 helicopter and has similar parts such as flight control ...
helicopter, and was previously home to RAF Stornoway. In 1898, the Hebridean Light Railway Company was proposed, with a terminus at Stornoway, but the line was never constructed.
Cruise ships visit the town and anchor in the bay, with passengers coming ashore on tenders.
Education
Stornoway is home to the Nicolson Institute: founded in 1873, it is the largest school in the Western Isles
The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland.
It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islands form part ...
and the only secondary school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
in Lewis, providing a six-year course. It has a roll of around 1,000 pupils. After a two-year rebuilding project costing £29 million, the new school building was formally opened in October 2012.
Primary education in Stornoway is in Stornoway Primary School, which opened in August 1969. The school is on Jamieson Drive and has around 400 pupils. The head teacher is Annette Murray.
There is a further education college, Lews Castle College, which was founded in 1953 and is now part of the University of the Highlands and Islands
The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) () is an integrated, tertiary institution encompassing both further and higher education. It is composed of 10 colleges and research institutions spread around Inverness, the Highlands and Isl ...
. Lews Castle College runs over 140 courses and has around 2700 students.
There is also a small campus of the University of Stirling
The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...
in Stornoway, teaching nursing, based in the Western Isles Hospital. It provides undergraduate degree programmes for adult nursing and supports postgraduate students, who can choose from various higher-level courses.
Sport
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
is the most popular amateur sport and Goathill Park is the home ground of Stornoway United, with a capacity of 1,000. Stornoway United play in the Lewis and Harris Football League.
Shinty
Shinty () is a team sport played with sticks and a ball. It is played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and among Highland migrants to the major cities of Scotland. The sport was formerly more widespread in Scotland and even played in Northern ...
is making a resurgence thanks to the Lewis Camanachd team, who are based in the town. Rugby Union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
is also popular, and Stornoway RFC men's and women's teams compete regularly in national leagues and cups.
The town also has a very popular gymnastics group, which competes annually in sports festivals. Stornoway Golf Club, the only 18-hole golf course in the Outer Hebrides, is set in the undulating slopes of the Lews Castle Grounds.
Very near to the Nicolson Institute is the Lewis Sports Centre (''Ionad Spors Leòdhas''), which has a sports hall, fitness suite, climbing wall, swimming pool and various other facilities. It has a running track and an AstroTurf
AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for pitch (sports field), playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a pile (textile), short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Si ...
football pitch. There is also the Stornoway Karate Club, a member of the International Japan Karate Association.
Culture and media
According to the 2011 Census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
, there are 5,492 Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...
speakers (43%) in the greater Stornoway area.
The annual Hebridean Celtic Festival is a 4-day community-led festival which attracts over 10,000 visitors each July. The Royal National Mòd has been held in Stornoway on a number of occasions, most recently in 2005, 2011 and 2016. Large influxes of visitors such as for these events can strain the town's accommodation capacity.
Stornoway is a sister town of Pendleton, in Anderson County, South Carolina
Anderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 203,718. Its county seat is Anderson. Named for Revolutionary War leader Robert Anderson, the county is located in northwest ...
, United States.
An Lanntair
An Lanntair (The Lantern) is a multi-purpose arts centre
An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues fo ...
on Stornoway's seafront. The purpose-built facility opened in October 2005. The arts centre was previously housed upstairs in Stornoway Town Hall.
The venue comprises an art gallery, theatre, cinema, dance studio and concert hall, and acts as a performance space for poetry and literature.
An Taigh Cèilidh
An Taigh Cèilidh (The Cèilidh House or The Visiting House) is a non-profit Gaelic language centre and community café on Church Street in Stornoway town centre. Events that focus on Gaelic language and culture are held in the multipurpose space.
Broadcasting
The radio station Isles FM is based in Stornoway and broadcasts on 103FM, featuring a mixture of Gaelic and English programming. It is also home to a studio operated by BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. The Gaelic-language public service broadcaster BBC Alba
BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day. The name ' is the Scottish Gae ...
, launched on 19 September 2008, is based in Stornoway, as was the defunct like-minded TeleG
TeleG was established as the first daily digital Gaelic TV channel in Scotland on 31 October 1999, and was available on the Freeview platform until 23 May 2011. The channel was based in Stornoway.
Programs were transmitted on TeleG between 6p ...
that operated between 1999 and 2011, contributing £2.5 million to the city's economy when it was on air.
Stornoway Public Library
Stornoway Library in Cromwell Street opens four days a week. It offers book borrowing services, free access to Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
, and computer access to the internet.
As part of its collections, the library offers access to a wide range of Gaelic materials, with a large collection of books and periodicals such as Gairm, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Scottish Gaelic Studies and Guth, as well as out of print publications An Gaidheal and Guth na Bliadhna. In their newspaper section, the library holds copies of Alba and Mac-Talla as well as Sruth, Scotland's only bilingual newspaper from the 1960s. Through the library membership, it is also possible to access An Stòr-dàta Stuthan Gàidhlig, a database of Gaelic educational resources.
Stornoway Library also holds an extensive local studies collection for research purposes. As part of those collections, the library holds an archive of local newspaper back editions including the Stornoway Gazette from 1917, the Highland News from 1883, the West Highland Free Press from 1972, the Oban Times from 1861, the Inverness Courier from 1817, the Inverness Advertiser from 1849 and the Inverness Courier and Advertiser from 1885. Other resources include a collection of Ordnance Survey
The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...
maps and Admiralty charts for the local area, old parochial registers, 19th century Census returns, minutes of the former Stornoway Town Council as well as current Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
for, gd, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, italic=no, Council of the Western Isles, paren=left; ) is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for ''Na h-Eileanan an Iar'' (the Western Isles, also known as the Outer Hebrides), one of the 32 co ...
and school log books. The library also holds the Seaforth Muniments (Seaforth Estate Papers), local croft histories and rental and valuation rolls dated as far back as the 18th century.
In 2018, Stornoway Library announced plans to transform their coffee shop into a makerspace available to the general public where they run educational activities on topics including 3D printing and virtual reality.
Newspapers
The main local newspapers based in Stornoway are the '' Stornoway Gazette'', and EVENTS.
Stornoway Media Centre
The Stornoway Media Centre is the base for Intermedia Services Ltd. and its various titles, including the free monthly magazine, EVENTS, founded in 2005.
The company was formerly based in Rigs Road but took over a converted church on James Street. ND Macleod's Electrical had formerly occupied the building for many years.
The Church House building, originally a United Presbyterian church dating back to the late 19th century, is now a media hub that spans print, websites, advertising, and latterly signage.
Food and drink
Stornoway black pudding (''Scots Gaelic'' - marag dhubh) is a gourmet black pudding
Black pudding is a distinct national type of blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is made from pork or occasionally beef Blood as food, blood, with Lard, pork fat or Suet, beef suet, and a cereal, usually oatmeal, oat ...
, and was granted PGI status in 2013 by the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
to prevent inferior puddings produced elsewhere being marketed as "Stornoway" or "Stornoway Style".
Stornoway kippers and Stornoway smoked salmon are produced in town. They have one of the last working brick kilns in the UK, at the establishment of Stornoway Fish Smokers, Shell Street.
Notable buildings
Notable buildings in Stornoway include:
* Stornoway Town Hall
* The Lewis War Memorial
* The neo-Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...
Lews Castle
Lews Castle (Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal Leòdhais'') is a Victorian era castle located west of the town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It was built in the years 1844–51 as a country house for Sir James Matheson who had bought the who ...
* Lewis Loom Centre
Stornoway in popular media and culture
Stornoway became immortalised in the song "Lovely Stornoway" by Calum Kennedy and Bob Halfin, the song has recently been covered in by Hebridean rock band Peat and Diesel.
The 4AD Records
4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name Axis Records by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD after the release of t ...
folk-rock band Stornoway
Stornoway (; ) is the main town, and by far the largest, of the Outer Hebrides (or Western Isles), and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland.
The town's population is around 6,953, making it the third-largest island town in Scotlan ...
took their name from the town, after seeing it on the BBC weather report. They signed their record deal outside the Woodlands Centre in Lews Castle Grounds, Stornoway, after performing in the town for the first time in April 2010. Their second concert there was as headliners on the main stage of the Hebridean Celtic Festival on 13 July 2011.
"Stornoway" is the name of the official residence
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of th ...
of the Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...
in Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
's Parliament. It was built in 1913 by wholesale grocery magnate Ascanio Joseph Major. He commissioned architect Alan Keefer to design this 'country house'. Stornoway was bought by the local Perley-Robertson family in 1923 and they extended the property over the next few years.
The novel ''The Stornoway Way'' by Lewisman Kevin MacNeil tells of one man's attempts to escape his hometown. The novel was later adapted for the stage and premiered at An Lanntair, Stornoway on 30 August 2019.
RAF Stornoway is featured in the Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...
novel '' Red Storm Rising'' as a base for Allied air operations over the North Atlantic and against Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
-held Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
.
In the motion picture '' Latitude Zero'' by Toho Productions (1969), Stornoway Harbour is featured on a wall plaque as the construction site of the submarine "Alpha".
In 2007, British car manufacturer Land Rover
Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...
introduced ''Stornoway Grey'' as a colour choice for its vehicle line-up. In response, Stornoway's councillor Angus Nicolson appealed to Land Rover to relabel the colour as ''Silvery Stornoway'', fearing that the association of ''grey'' with ''dull'' and ''boring'' would hurt the image of the town with tourists. Mr Nicolson said: "This is deeply insulting and is offensive, inaccurate and inherently degrading. This will hit tourism as it subliminally implants adverse connotations in the minds of those who have never experienced the reality of these beautiful islands." Land Rover replied that the colour in question is one of the most popular ones and the use of Stornoway in its name will instead "keep it on the map".
In 2011, Scottish author Peter May published '' The Blackhouse'', the first of The Lewis Trilogy of thrillers based on Lewis, where the primary police murder investigation is based in Stornoway.
Religion
Stornoway has several churches of various Christian and non Christian denominations. The parish church was built in 1794.
In May 2018, the first mosque
A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard.
Originally, mosques were si ...
of the Western Isles opened to serve a small Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
population.
Notable people
* Alasdair Smith – Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of Economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
at the University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...
* Alice Starmore – (née Alice Matheson), a professional needleworker, photographer & author of books on needlework
* Anne Lundon – TV presenter
* Aeneas MacKenzie – screenwriter
* Alexander MacKenzie – explorer, after whom the Mackenzie River
The Mackenzie River (French: ; Slavey language, Slavey: ' èh tʃʰò literally ''big river''; Inuvialuktun: ' uːkpɑk literally ''great river'') is a river in the Canadian Canadian boreal forest, boreal forest and tundra. It forms, ...
in Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
is named
* Anne MacKenzie, BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
– current affairs presenter and radio presenter
* Alexander Munro – Olympic tug-of-war medalist and wrestler
* Astrid (band) – band from the Western Isles
* Calum Kennedy – singer and entertainer
* Sheilagh M. Kesting – first woman minister to be nominated to be Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
The moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every year. After chairing the Ass ...
* Calum MacDonald – politician
* Cathy MacDonald – TV presenter
* Malcolm Mackay – Scottish crime writer
*Colin Mackenzie
Colonel Colin Mackenzie (1754–8 May 1821) was a Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist and an indologist. He sur ...
– first Surveyor-General of India
* Donny MacLeod (Donny B) – former TV presenter on Pebble Mill
*Ken MacLeod
Kenneth Macrae MacLeod (born 2 August 1954) is a Scottish science fiction writer. His novels ''The Sky Road'' and '' The Night Sessions'' won the BSFA Award. MacLeod's novels have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Nebula, Locus ...
– science fiction writer
* Kevin MacNeil – novelist, poet and playwright
*Hans Matheson
Hans Matheson (born 7 August 1975) is a Scottish actor and musician. In a wide-ranging film and television career he has taken lead roles in diverse films such as '' Doctor Zhivago'', ''Sherlock Holmes'', ''The Tudors'', ''Tess of the d'Urberv ...
– actor
*Sir James Matheson
Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS (17 November 179631 December 1878), was a Scottish opium trader and taipan. Born in Shiness, Lairg, Sutherland, Scotland, he was the son of Captain Donald Matheson. He attended Edinburgh ...
– 19th century landowner and international trader
* Linda Norgrove – aid worker from the Western Isles
* Peat and Diesel – band from the Western Isles
* Donald Stewart – politician
* James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie
James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie (23 September 1784 – 24 September 1843) was a Scottish politician and British colonial administrator.
Early life
He was born James Alexander Stewart on 23 September 1784. James was the son of the former Geor ...
– politician and landowner
Areas of the town
* Stornoway Town centre
* Goathill
* Manor Park
* Plasterfield
*Lews Castle
Lews Castle (Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal Leòdhais'') is a Victorian era castle located west of the town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It was built in the years 1844–51 as a country house for Sir James Matheson who had bought the who ...
Grounds
* The Cearns
* Marybank
* Laxdale
Laxdale () is a village in the Scottish Outer Hebrides, on the Isle of Lewis. Although nominally a distinct village, Laxdale is now effectively a suburb of Stornoway. Laxdale is also within the parish of Stornoway. There is a school called Laxda ...
* Sandwick
* Stornoway Airport
* Newvalley, Lewis
* Steinish
* Newmarket
Gallery
06170 UK - Outer Hebrides - Stornoway - Lews Castle - V-P.jpg, Lews Castle
Lews Castle (Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal Leòdhais'') is a Victorian era castle located west of the town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It was built in the years 1844–51 as a country house for Sir James Matheson who had bought the who ...
File:Stornoway December 2004.jpg, Bayhead, Stornoway
References
External links
*
Stornoway information by Explore Scotland
{{authority control
Towns in the Outer Hebrides
Isle of Lewis
Community buyouts in Scotland
Ports and harbours of Scotland
Port cities and towns in Scotland
Fishing communities in Scotland
Towns on Scottish islands
Populated places established in the 9th century
Parishes in Western Isles