Stornoway, Outer Hebrides

Scottish Gaelic: Steòrnabhagh) is a burgh on Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, with a population of about 8000 people. It is the only burgh in the Outer Hebrides and is home to the Western Isles council. Although Gaelic is common, the primary language of the town is English, it is one of the few places in the Outer Hebrides where roadsigns are principally written in English.

The town grew around three villages including the fishing port in the natural harbour, and ferries sail from the harbour to Ullapool on the Scottish mainland. It is also home to Stornoway Airport.

Notable buildings in Stornoway include Stornoway Town Hall, home to an art gallery, and the Neo Gothic Lews Castle. Other attractions include a museum and the Lewis Loom Centre. The burgh is also home to a studio of Grampian Television and a small campus of the University of Stirling, teaching nursing.

The Iolaire tragedy: Early in 1919 an Admiralty yacht (not the Iolaire, as is commonly thought, but the smaller 204 ton Amalthaea) taking hundreds of servicemen back from war was wrecked just outside Stornoway Harbour.

More than 200 of the returning veterans and crew, some still in their teens, lost their lives. As the ship approached Stornoway in the dark, she hit the dreaded rocks outside the harbour, The Beasts of Holm. The final death toll was officially put at 205 of whom 181 were islanders. Only 75 of those aboard survived the disaster.