If you're ever in Stornoway, swing by St Peter's Episcopal Church on Francis Street. It's at the top of the street coming up from An Lanntair on your right hand side. It has a small churchyard with about two dozen graves. Some of them related to the Lewis Chemical Works, an enterprise dating back to the middle of the 19th century, when they tried to convert peat into paraffin.
Gravestone for Henry Caunter
Fairly successful, except it was badly managed. The site, about two miles southwest of Stornoway, just off the A859 road to Tarbert and near the turn-off to Arnish (and its Deep Water Port), is difficult to locate and requires a bit of bog slogging. I've been there, and there is little to remind us of the plant.
Except for this memorial stone
The electricity transmission company SSEN thought it was a good idea to build a huge electricity transformer and converter station there, required to transmit all the renewables-generated power to the mainland, using a direct-current underwater cable. Well, tout Stornoway was up in arms, and today came the news that the site was no longer earmarked for the converter station. Where then? Well, they were thinking about a site near the Fabrication Yard, two miles to the south. We shall see.
