31 March 2010: Lews Castle, Stornoway

In its 162-year history, it has been the home of a drugs baron, a wartime naval hospital and a college.  This week the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) confirmed that it has awarded Lews Castle development funding which will help turn it into a museum and a hotel.

Built between 1848 and 1860 by architect Charles Wilson for Sir James Matheson - who made his fortune trading in Chinese opium - this gothic mansion rising from wooded parkland is a unique landmark in the largely treeless Outer Hebrides. Lord Leverhulme, who built up the Lever Bros/Unilever conglomerate, bought Lewis in 1918 and Harris a year later. In 1923 he gifted the castle and 64,000 acres of land to the local people. The Stornoway Trust was established to manage the estate on behalf of the community.

During the Second World War the building was requisitioned by the Admiralty and used as a naval hospital.
In the early 1950s, the Trust sold the castle to the former Ross and Cromarty County Council and in 1953, the building became the first home for Lews Castle College. It continued to be used for educational purposes until 1988 but has been largely vacant since the early 1990s.

Lews Castle is a category A-listed property and is on the Buildings at Risk Register. The development funding from the HLF will go towards helping to restore the building, and opening it up to the public as a museum, hotel and function space.