Monument record 370 - STORNOWAY CASTLE, LEWIS

NB43SW 6 4213 3267.

(NB 4213 3267) Old Castle (NR) (In Ruins)
OS 6'map, Ross-shire, 1st ed., (1851)

Mackenzie, without stating them, says that there are arguments to be found for ascribing an earlier date to this castle than the 15th century but not earlier than the 13th. All references are to Stornoway Castle or the Castle at Stornoway and the first historical reference is in 1506. It was destroyed during the Protectorate and later, restored; by 1849 only a fragment remained and this, together with the rock on which it stood, were incorporated in 1882 into harbour improvements.
W C Mackenzie 1919; M Martin 1934; Information from D J Stevenson's Plans Habour Improvemnts 1855 and 1867, scale 40ft = 1 in (held in National Library Mss 5862/130 and 132)

At NB 4214 3267, on the east face of the north corner of a warehouse is a plaque referring to this castle.
Information from OS reviser (W Y R) 1 May 1964

'The earliest known sites in Stornoway are the castle and the church of St Lennan. The castle was built on a skerry which now lies under the ferry terminal K, and traces were still easily visible in the late nineteenth-century(figure7).The remains can still be seen at low tide beneath the concrete-pillared jetty beside the ferry terminal. Little is known architecturally, but it is likely to have been similar in plan and form to Kisimul on Barra. This mid fifteenth-century castle was built on a rocky island, though some distance from shore. It comprised a rectangular, three-storey tower house set in one corner of a pentagonal enclosure.The tower originally stood alone, with the enclosing curtain wall constructed slightly later. A hall was built up against the internal face of the curtain wall and later buildings, including a kitchen range and a watchmen's house, were added in the sixteenth-century.'(E.Dennison and R.Coleman,1997,46-47)


'A measure of their status was reflected in the establishment of a castle at Stornoway, a spot that at been favoured as a sheltered place to encamp by at least as early the twelfth century by Olav, King of Man, Islay, Mull and isles south of Ardnamurchan(figure 5). How early this MacLeod strong hold was established is unclear, although some commentators on the island hold that the castle was originally built by the Nicolsons in the twelfth century. 'Ane Descriptione of Certaine Pairts of the highlands of Scotland', written probably in the seventeenth century, describes it as 'builded of ancient be [the] Inhabitants and superiors of Lewis'. There is nothing to confirm this, however,either in documentary sources or archaeological finds.'(E.Dennison and R.Coleman,1997,16)

'The restoration of the MacLeod lands and the castle of Stornoway to Malcolm,brother of Torquil,in 1511,and their establishment,by James IV,as the free barony of Lewis might have brought more settled times, but for the internal disputes of the MacLeod family, which lasted most of the century.'(E.Dennison and R.Coleman,1997,18)
'Decades of internal dissension,much amongst the illegitimate sons of MacLeod, were to follow, with various members of the family gaining control of the castle of Stornoway. During one of the assaults on Ruaridh MacLeod, in 1585, all the writs and charters pertinent to Lewis were seized from the Stornoway Castle by Torquil Connach,they were handed to Kenneth MacKenzie of Kintail. In spite of being, at times, a prisoner in his own castle, Ruaridh MacLeod remained an important force for his own sons to reckon with until his death.'(E.Dennison and R.Coleman,1997,19)

'It was not long before the occupying forces were withdrawn. Before their departure, the castle of Stornoway was once again destroyed. The fort too was, perhaps, destroyed. The island of Lewis was declared forfeit, Seaforth being excluded from Cromwell's Act of Grace and Pardon.On submission, Seaforth was impriosned, but released after the Restoration of 1660. Lilburne had complained to Cromwell that, although Stornoway was 'the best' harbour in the Outer Hebrides, there was no timber, nor any decent building stone. Presumably the destruction of the forts and castle would have left the townspeople with a useful quarry for building materials. A late seventeenth-century description of parts of the Highlands spoke of the castle of Stornoway 'lately brokne doun by the English garisone in Cromvels tyme'.(E.Dennison and R.Coleman,1997,25-27)

Stevenson's plans of 1855 & 1857, held in the National Map Library (Mss 5862/130 and 132), and nineteenth century photographs of Stornoway make it clear that the castle at Stornoway can never have been as large as Kisimuil. The island upon which it stood was very much smaller than that in Castle Bay. Stornoway Castle would appear to have been a rectangular tower of more than one storey, possibly as much as three storeys, in height. There does not appear to have been a curtain wall or any further associated structures. It is possible that any such service buildings relating to the castle might have been in the area of the mediaeval town, beyond what appears to have been a tidal causeway largely of natural stone. The castle was totally destroyed by the construction of the ferry pier. The heights shown on the engineers drawings indicate that the constructed upper surface of the pier was at the same level as the foundation of the castle. No visible remains survive (contra Dennison & Coleman 1998, 46).
MML 22.4.2002

Martin Martin, 1695a, A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland c. 1695, 8 (2nd ed., 1716) (Bibliographic reference). SWE5082.

W C Mackenzie, 1919, The Book of the Lews: the story of a Hebridean Isle, 23-35 illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE12815.

E. Patricia Dennison & Russel Coleman, 1997, Historic Stornoway: the archaeological implications of development (Bibliographic reference). SWE41004.