Large numbers of people like to take vacations with a difference and more travelers are finding usual vacation at the seaside increasingly boring. The need to find is ever and vacation planners are constantly looking for new and exciting vacation destinations or that offer something extraordinary. In the following article I examine the town of Stornoway on the remote Hebridean Isle of Lewis and discuss the factors which make this such a great vacation destination.
Lewis
Lewis, with the Isle of Harris, is the biggest island in the Outer Hebrides/Western Isles. The archipelago is far from Scotland’s west coast a little further out from Skye, requiring a flight or ferry journey to get there. Because of the extreme remoteness it has only been during the last few decades that tourists are able to access to the islands for a vacation, prior to this it was only the upper classes who could afford to pay for the journey. The only other way to visit the Western Isles was to arrive to seek employment.
The Town Of Stornoway
At one time in the past Stornoway was a very busy fishing port. The main quarry of the fishermen was herring and throughout the herring fishing season the town’s population increased from about five or six thousand to over thirty thousand. An astonishing number of Stornoway Hotels, bed and breakfasts and guest houses were built to meet the demands for accommodation the enormous influx of temporary inhabitants created. today Stornoway’s population remains at just more than six thousand (not including visitors).
Sadly the herring industry heavily declined after WWI with the collapse of the markets in Germany and Russia. A tiny fishing fleet can still be found in Stornoway however few buildings from that time remain and Stornoway lost a great deal of its charm and character during the redevelopment of the 1970′s.
Recently the Western Isles Council has enhanced, rather sympathetically, the town building a couple of works of art on the herring industry theme as well as adding fountains and areas of flower beds. New architecture are also more sympathetic to the environment, for example the An Lanntair Arts centre.
Even though there are much less Stornoway hotels in existence, only the Royal Hotel can be traced back to the peak of the Herring industry, there remains a large number of Stornoway bed and breakfasts, as well as hostels, inns and guest houses. You will even discover a camping and caravan park on the outskirts of town.
If you are thinking about a vacation in Stornoway on Lewis please take a look at our extensive list of Stornoway hotels.