Stornoway
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English
Stornoway (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx Template:IPA) 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,<ref name="Overview">Template:Cite web</ref> making it the third-largest island town in Scotland after Kirkwall in Orkney and Lerwick in Shetland. The historical civil parish of Stornoway, which includes various nearby villages, has a combined population of just over 10,000.<ref name="hiepop">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (the Western Isles Council) measures population in a different area: the Stornoway settlement area, Laxdale, Sandwick and Newmarket; in 2019, the estimated population for this area was 6,953.<ref name="Overview"/>
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 (Sunday) has been associated with Hebridean culture. Recent changes<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> mean that Sundays<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> on Lewis now more closely resemble those in most parts of the Southern Isles, i.e. Benbecula, South Uist, Barra, and Vatersay, and on mainland Scotland.
History
The town was founded by Vikings in the early 9th century,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with the Old Norse name Stjórnavágr. The settlement grew up around a sheltered natural harbour 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,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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, King of Scotland, to establish on the island the Scottish trading company known as the Fife Adventurers around 1598.<ref name="vh">Template:Cite web</ref> As a result, James VI transferred Lewis to the MacKenzies of Seaforth in 1610.<ref name="lewis">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1844, the MacKenzies sold Stornoway, and the Isle of Lewis as a whole, to Sir James Matheson. He and his descendants built the present Lews Castle on a hill overlooking the bay of Stornoway.<ref name="pcl">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="shs1">Template:Cite web</ref> Fragmentary ruins of the old Stornoway Castle<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> had survived in the bay until that time, and can even be seen in Victorian photographs,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="History">History</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.<ref name="pcl"/><ref name="shs1"/>
During World War II 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 Forward Operating Base for Air Defence aircraft protecting the fleet" for six weeks each year.<ref name="History"/>
Stornoway Town Hall was officially re-opened for community use in March 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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 who often visited.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> who were returning home from World War I.
Today,Template:When 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 and home to a Template:Sclass, Tom Sanderson. His Majesty's Coastguard operates a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre from a building near the harbour.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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 was also proposed by AMEC as the landfall for its proposed private sub-sea cable which would export the electricity generated from the Lewis Windpower wind farm. 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 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In December 2007, the yard won a contract to construct 49 towers for wind turbines in Turkey. This will ensure employment for around 70 employees for over six months.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
As of 2021, the yard is now operated by Harland and Wolff.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The new multi-purpose terminal will provide berthing for vessels up to 360m long with a water depth of 10m below Chart datum, a ferry berth, and 6.5 hectares of land for unloading, storage and industrial uses.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In April 2022, Stornoway Port Authority announced they had signed a £49 million construction contract<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.Template:Update inline
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).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Climate
Like much of the British Isles, Stornoway has an oceanic climate, with relatively little variation of temperature and damp conditions throughout the year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Winters are exceptionally mild for such a northerly location; average nighttime low temperatures in January and February, the coldest months, are above Template:Convert, while daytime high temperatures average about Template:Convert. Summers are cool, due to influence from the Atlantic Ocean; average daytime high temperatures in July and August are just over Template:Convert. 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 Template:Convert of precipitation, while January is the wettest month, averaging Template:Convert.
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Weather box
Transport
The Caledonian MacBrayne<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>-operated ferry Template:MV 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, Template:MV (1995), used to carry the freight crossing; however, she has now been reassigned elsewhere by CalMac.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This means that MV Loch Seaforth is often heavily congested, particularly during the summer months.
The idea of an undersea tunnel<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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 Template:Convert long: the longest road tunnel in the world.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Stornoway is the hub of bus routes in Lewis: buses run to Point, Ness, Back and Tolsta, Uig, the West Side, Lochs and Tarbert, Harris. These buses are operated by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and several private operators.
Stornoway Airport<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is located next to the village of Melbost, Template:Convert east of the town; there are flights to Edinburgh, Inverness and Glasgow, all operated by Loganair.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Benbecula operated by Hebridean Air Services. The airport is also the base of an HM Coastguard Search & Rescue<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sikorsky S-92 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 and the only secondary school 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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. Lews Castle College runs over 140 courses and has around 2700 students.
There is also a small campus of the University of Stirling 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Sport
Football is the most popular amateur sport and Goathill Park is the home ground of Stornoway United, with a capacity of 1,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Stornoway United play in the Lewis and Harris Football League.
Shinty is making a resurgence thanks to the Lewis Camanachd team, who are based in the town.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Rugby Union is also popular, and Stornoway RFC men's and women's teams compete regularly in national leagues and cups.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The town also has a very popular gymnastics group, which competes annually in sports festivals.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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 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, there are 5,492 Scottish Gaelic speakers (43%) in the greater Stornoway area.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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, United States.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
An Lanntair
An Lanntair (The Lantern) is a multi-purpose arts centre on Stornoway's seafront.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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, launched on 19 September 2008, is based in Stornoway, as was the defunct like-minded TeleG 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, and computer access to the internet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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 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 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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, and was granted PGI status in 2013 by the European Commission to prevent inferior puddings produced elsewhere being marketed as "Stornoway" or "Stornoway Style".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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 in popular media and culture
In the 1980s, the Stornoway airfield underwent significant development by the British Government. Initially, this was explained to local residents as a response to potential threats from Soviet bombers based on the Kola Peninsula, or as a measure for anti-shipping control in the North Atlantic. In reality, however, the upgrades were part of the British Government's plan to integrate the airfield into its strategic nuclear arms infrastructure.<ref>Peter Watkins: Resan (Swedish for "The Journey"), documentary film, 1987.</ref>
Stornoway became immortalised in the song "Lovely Stornoway" by Calum Kennedy and Bob Halfin, the song has recently Template:Citation needed been covered in by Hebridean rock band Peat and Diesel.
The 4AD Records folk-rock band Stornoway took their name from the town, after seeing it on the BBC weather report.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
"Stornoway" is the name of the official residence of the Leader of the Opposition in Canada'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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
RAF Stornoway is featured in the Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising as a base for Allied air operations over the North Atlantic and against Soviet-held Iceland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2007, British car manufacturer Land Rover 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."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Religion
Template:Main Stornoway has several churches of various Christian and non Christian denominations. The parish church was built in 1794.<ref name="lewis"/>
In May 2018, the first mosque of the Western Isles opened to serve a small Muslim population.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Notable people
- Alasdair Smith<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – Professor of Economics at the University of Sussex
- Alice Starmore<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – (née Alice Matheson), a professional needleworker, photographer & author of books on needlework
- Anne Lundon<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – TV presenter
- Aeneas MacKenzie<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – screenwriter
- Alexander MacKenzie<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – explorer, after whom the Mackenzie River in Canada is named
- Anne MacKenzie, BBC<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – current affairs presenter and radio presenter
- Alexander Munro<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – Olympic tug-of-war medalist and wrestler
- Astrid (band)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – band from the Western Isles
- Calum Kennedy<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – singer and entertainer
- Sheilagh M. Kesting<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> – first woman minister to be nominated to be Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
- Calum MacDonald<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> – politician
- Cathy MacDonald<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – TV presenter
- Malcolm Mackay<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – Scottish crime writer
- Colin Mackenzie<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – first Surveyor-General of India
- Donny MacLeod (Donny B)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – former TV presenter on Pebble Mill
- Ken MacLeod – science fiction writer
- Kevin MacNeil<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – novelist, poet and playwright
- Hans Matheson<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – actor
- Sir James Matheson – 19th century landowner and international trader<ref name="lewis"/>
- Linda Norgrove<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – aid worker from the Western Isles
- Peat and Diesel<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – band from the Western Isles
- Donald Stewart<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – politician
- James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie – politician and landowner<ref name="lewis"/>
Areas of the town
- Stornoway Town centre
- Goathill
- Manor Park
- Plasterfield
- Lews Castle Grounds
- The Cearns
- Marybank
- Laxdale
- Sandwick
- Stornoway Airport
- Newvalley, Lewis
- Steinish
- Newmarket
Gallery
-
Bayhead, Stornoway
References
External links
Template:Na h-Eileanan Siar places Template:Lewis and Harris Template:Portal bar