Lews [sic] Castle was built in 1863 by Sir James Matheson, who had bought Lewis in 1844
with profits from the Jardine, Matheson enterprises in Hong Kong and Shanghai (largely opium-related).
A Matheson heir sold the island to Lord Leverhulme, a founder of Lever Brothers, who donated the castle (and town)
to the people of Stornoway in 1923. It was a burn hospital in the Second World War and was later condemned.
Though the exterior puts up a brave front, it is now largely abandoned.