Stornoway

Stornoway is the main town on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a small port with a deep-water harbour that once served as a Viking anchorage. Lews Castle, a 19th-century country house built with money from the opium trade, sits in its own grounds overlooking the town and harbour. The local museum inside has a few of the Lewis Chessmen, medieval Norse chess pieces carved from walrus ivory, found on a beach on the island's west coast. Harris Tweed, a hand-woven wool fabric protected by an Act of Parliament, is still produced in islanders' homes and sold at the mill shops in town. The landscape outside Stornoway is open moorland, peat bog, and exposed Atlantic coast. The Callanish Standing Stones, about 30 minutes west, predate Stonehenge and stand in a cross-shaped formation on a ridge above Loch Roag. Gaelic is spoken alongside English. The weather is unpredictable, and a waterproof layer is advisable regardless of the forecast.