Escape Lews Castle

A stately home that’s determined to be part of the local community? Stornoway’s wonderfully welcoming castle is a fine example of how to rewrite the rules with style

- Catherine Coyle

For all that they belong to everyone, there are some places you can’t help feeling are yours alone – a favourite bench in the local park, say, or the seat you always choose at the library. You no doubt share these preferences with hundreds of other random strangers but, in that moment, they feel they belong exclusively to you. Lews Castle, in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, is exactly that kind of place. It draws you in and makes you feel part of its history.

The castle was built for Sir James Matheson in 1847; he’d bought the entire island with money he made in the Chinese opium trade. In the early 20th  century, the castle was bought by Lord Leverhulme, who gifted it to the islanders. It served as a naval hospital during the Second World War and was later used as accommodation for students at Lews College. The building suffered, though; maintenance and repairs became overwhelming and it lay empty until a programme of renovation restored it to life.