The Lewis War Memorial is a war memorial dedicated to the men from the Lewis area (Outer Hebrides, Scotland) who lost their lives in World War I and those who survived the war only to drown while returning home during the 1919 sinking of HMY Iolaire. Completed in 1924, the memorial is situated at the highest point of the town of Stornoway.
The memorial is in the form of an 85-foot-high (26 m) tower, at the top of the Cnoc nan Uan hill outside Stornoway. The tower is built from local Gneiss stone, dressed with Aberdeenshire granite. It has a 20-foot-high (6 m) entrance chamber, with four further chambers dedicated to each of the four parishes of Lewis. A staircase in metal and granite leads up the tower to the top turret. [1]
An initial public meeting was held in January 1920 in Stornoway to organise a memorial to the men of the island who had lost their lives during the 1914-18 Great War and the tragic sinking of His Majesty's Yacht Iolaire 12 months previously. [1] A fundraising campaign took place, with donations including £5,000 from the owner of the Isle of Lewis, Lord Leverhulme. The cost of erecting a memorial was expected to be more than £10,000, though the eventual cost was only £4,000. [1]
Designed by Mr J. H. Hall of Aberdeen, the 85-foot-high (26 m) memorial tower was completed in June 1924, with internal fitting and installation of the memorial plaques finished by August. [1]
The tower became a Category B listed building in 1971. [2]
Due to deterioration of the stonework and the internal wrought iron staircase, the tower was closed to the public in 1975. Remedial waterproofing and repairs took place in 1981 and 1982. [1]
With the interior of the tower still inaccessible, in 2002 the memorial plaques were moved outside, to border a new viewing path. [1]
In 2017 further repair work and internal restoration was undertaken, thanks to a £132,000 grant from the War Memorial Trusts First World War Memorials Programme and £100,000 from the Western Isles Council. [3] The £132,000 was the largest ever award by the War Memorials Trust for their programme. [4] Completed by October 2017, the work included replacement of the windows, the roof and the internal cement render (with breathable lime and sand mortar). The main door was painted poppy red. [4]
The Outer Hebrides or Western Isles, sometimes known as Na h-Innse Gall or the Long Isle/Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. The islands are geographically coextensive with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. They form part of the archipelago of the Hebrides, separated from the Scottish mainland and from the Inner Hebrides by the waters of the Minch, the Little Minch, and the Sea of the Hebrides. Scottish Gaelic is the predominant spoken language, although in a few areas English speakers form a majority.
The Isle of Lewis or simply Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as if they were separate islands. The total area of Lewis is 683 square miles (1,770 km2).
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Stornoway is the main town of the Western Isles and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland.
Point, also known as the Eye Peninsula, is a peninsula some 11 km long in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The majority of Point is connected to the rest of the Isle of Lewis by a narrow isthmus, one mile in length and at one point barely 100 metres wide. The peninsula is just 6 km east of the regional capital of Stornoway, however the district of Point actually starts at the Parkend estate on Stornoway's outskirts. Point is home to around 2,600 people and is one of the few districts of the Western Isles where the population is increasing. There are about 17 villages and hamlets in Point: Melbost (Mealabost), Branahuie, Aignish (Aiginis), Knock, Swordale (Suardail), Garrabost, Lower Bayble, Eagleton, Upper Bayble, Shulishader, Sheshader (Seisiader), Flesherin (Fleisirin), Cnoc Amhlaigh, Portnaguran, Aird, Broker (Brocair), and Portvoller.
HMY Iolaire was an Admiralty Yacht that sank at the entrance to Stornoway harbour on 1 January 1919, with the loss of at least 201 men out of the 283 on board. The overcrowded vessel was trying to negotiate a difficult route under exceptionally bad weather conditions. The disaster cost the Isle of Lewis almost the whole of its young male population.
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Ness is the northernmost part of the Isle of Lewis, a community consisting of about 16 villages, including Lionel, Habost, Swainbost, Cross, North and South Dell, Cross Skigersta, Skigersta, Eorodale, Adabroc, Port of Ness, Knockaird, Fivepenny and Eoropie. It was the most north-westerly community in the European Union, when the United Kingdom was a member. Its most northerly point is the Butt of Lewis. The name Ness derives from the old Norse for headland and many of the other place names in the area also have a Norse origin.
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Borve is a village on the west side of the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, 17 miles from the island's only town, Stornoway.
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Lewis and Harris, or Lewis with Harris, is a single Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, divided by mountains. It is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in the British Isles, after Great Britain and the island of Ireland, with an area of 841 square miles (2,178 km2), which is approximately 1% of the area of Great Britain. The northern two-thirds is called [the Isle of] Lewis and the southern third [the Isle of] Harris; each is frequently referred to as if it were a separate island.
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Media related to Lewis War Memorial at Wikimedia Commons