Scottish Memories and an Early Christmas Treat
– by David Eugene Perry
17 August 2026: Ahoy! Alfredo and I arrived in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides: the charming town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. According to my family history, this is the country from which my ancestors came in the 1600s. My mother’s family’s maiden name is Tyree, very likely connected to the Scottish island of the Inner Hebrides, of Tiree
We walk along the charming waterfront of Stornoway, passing boys in their school ties looking like they just came out of Hogwarts. Then we make our way to Lews Castle via the waterfront promenade.
Lews Castle—pronounced like Lewis Castle—stands across Stornoway Harbour on the Isle of Lewis. Despite its medieval appearance, it is actually a grand Victorian country house. Its history begins before the present building. Around 1680, the Mackenzies, Earls of Seaforth, built Seaforth Lodge on the site as their Lewis residence. It was enlarged during the 18th century but eventually replaced by the castle.
In 1844, Sir James Matheson purchased the entire Isle of Lewis for £190,000. Matheson was a cofounder of Jardine Matheson and had made much of his enormous fortune through the Chinese opium trade. He commissioned Glasgow architect Charles Wilson to design an imposing new home overlooking Stornoway. Construction began in 1847 and was completed around 1854. Matheson and his wife also created the extensive wooded grounds, whose sheltered trees provide a striking contrast to Lewis’s generally open, windswept landscape. Lews Castle history
Matheson’s legacy on Lewis is complicated. He invested heavily in roads, drainage and famine relief, but his years as proprietor also coincided with assisted emigration and the displacement of island families.
In 1918, industrialist William Lever—Lord Leverhulme, founder of the company that became Unilever—purchased Lewis and the castle. He had ambitious plans to industrialize the island, especially its fishing industry, but encountered strong local resistance and abandoned many of his schemes. In 1923, he gave Lews Castle and its grounds to the people of Stornoway for civic use.
During the Second World War, the castle housed personnel from 700 Naval Air Squadron. Six Supermarine Walrus amphibious aircraft operated from nearby Cuddy Point, and the installation was known as HMS Mentor. Beginning in the 1950s, the castle served as student accommodation for Lews Castle College. After that use ended, much of the building remained empty and deteriorated for decades.
A major restoration began in the 2010s. The ground-floor public rooms—including the ballroom—reopened in 2016, and the adjoining Museum nan Eilean now tells the history and culture of the Outer Hebrides. It includes several of the original Lewis Chessmen, the famous 12th-century pieces discovered at Uig on Lewis. The castle’s upper floors contain hotel suites and self-catering apartments. Museum nan Eilean
Today, both the castle and grounds belong to the local community. It is therefore not an ancestral clan fortress, but a Victorian monument to two extraordinarily wealthy industrialists—Matheson and Leverhulme—that eventually became one of Stornoway’s most important public spaces.
Just below the castle grounds, we encounter a cannon from The Crimean War, presented by Captain William Hall to Sir James Matheson following its capture from a Russian-held fort in Finland. The cannon weighed about one and a half tons and could fire cannon balls over several miles. Hall later had a distinguished naval career and was eventually knighted and made Admiral of the Fleet.
After leaving behind cannon and the castle, we continue down to the waterfront and come across a storybook cottage, like something out of Hansel and Gretel. A sign by the door reads “A Gardener’s Home by the Sea,” explaining that the little cottage has been home to generations of Lews Castle gardeners and remains so today. Just past the fairy tale cottage we discover a real fairy tale: a tree home for fairies with gifts for the tiny mythical creatures strewn around the trunk, and a heart-shaped sign attached:
If you believe a fairy can make your wish come true
Look inside yourself
that fairy could be you.
Here from the sprite’s tree Lews Castle looks like nothing so much as a miniature Downton Abby. It’s an entrancing view and walk. Back across the bridge into town, we come across a truly fabulous car from the 1950s, a Jaguar that was a five-time winner of Le Mans. I can’t wait to send this picture to my retired mechanic brother in Texas.After encountering classic cars, we continue our walk through the village and come across two monuments from World War I, or as my grandfather who fought in that conflict called it, the Great War.
The sinking of H.M.Y. Iolaire was one of the defining tragedies in the history of Lewis and Harris. On New Year’s Eve 1918, just seven weeks after the Armistice, the former private yacht was carrying nearly 280 servicemen home across the Minch. Shortly before 2:00 a.m. on January 1, 1919, with the lights of Stornoway visible, she veered off course and struck the rocks known as the Beasts of Holm near the harbor entrance. The ship was only a few dozen yards from shore, but the darkness, freezing water and violent seas made that short distance almost impossible to cross.
John Finlay Macleod bravely swam ashore carrying a line, allowing dozens of men to pull themselves to safety along a heavier rope. Even so, more than 200 people died, including 184 men from Lewis, and over 50 bodies were never recovered. The loss was particularly devastating because Lewis had already sacrificed around 1,000 men during the First World War. These sailors had survived the conflict and reached the very threshold of home, only to perish within sight of their waiting families. Memorials at Holm, in Stornoway Harbour and at the Lewis War Memorial continue to commemorate the victims of a disaster that profoundly affected nearly every community on the island.
Just across for the H.M.Y. Iolaire plinth, The Seaforth Highlanders memorial was “erected by the Seaforth Highlanders to the undying memory of 8432 comrades belonging to the ten battalions of the regiment who gave their lives for their country in the Great War.” Across its base are the words “SCOTLAND FOR EVER.”
Appropriately enough, after the World War I memorials, we stop in Martin’s Memorial Church. A beautiful and simple temple to the faith with its World War II tribute including a Book of Remembrance and wooden poppy crosses. Its Roll of Honour bears the words: “TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF THOSE FROM THIS CHURCH WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR US IN THE GREAT WAR.” It lists men from the congregation who served in several British and Canadian units and closes: “BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN: FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED.”
After leaving the church, we stroll through a street in the town that we had missed somehow before, and we stumbled upon the Baltic Bookshop. It was crowded and I almost didn’t go in, but then, I had a strange feeling. I walked in and I saw the shopkeeper on a step ladder hanging a tea towel for display in the front window. “Excuse me, I said, “do you have tea towels with calendars on them?” She looked down at with a smile and said, “I think I have one left.” She walked me over to a display, and there wasn’t one: there were five! I bought them all.
Now here’s the time where a little bit family history gets inserted. When I was a boy, my grandmother always hosted Christmas Day lunch. All the cousins would give each other little presents. My family’s present to the other cousins was something that has become very hard to find, and old-fashioned indeed: Tea towels with the next year’s calendar imprinted on them.
Over the decades, the family has grown and Alfredo and I have given dozens of calendars as our Holiday tradition. But in the United States, more and more, they’re difficult to find. While we’ve been traveling, I was convinced – and determined – that I would find one someplace. Through eleven countries we have searched. And then finally here in Stornoway in the outer Hebrides, we stumble upon them in the Baltic Bookshop.
I was so excited, we celebrated with a proper gin and tonic at the Criterion Bar. I think it’s appropriate that the country which gave birth to my family, Tyree, should have been the place this little family treasure was uncovered.
Merry Christmas. 😊
