Monday - Day 25 - Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland - part 2 - Harris Tweed Authority

Continuing blogging about our day in Stornoway -- part 1 can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/monday-day-25-stornoway-isle-of-lewis.html

We had tickets to join the noon guided talk at Harris Tweed Authority, so we headed there a few minutes before noon...

The Harris Tweed Orb Stamp and some examples of Harris Tweed

We first watched and listened to a video about Harris Tweed (that's why we're all looking the same way and have headsets on!). In the middle of the room is oldest of the looms on display at the Harris Tweed Authority.

Then our very informative guide talked with us about the process of creating Harris Tweed - this area showed the different stages of processing the wool. One of the distinctives of Harris Tweed is that it is dyed in the wool (not after it is made into yarn/threads) and the colors are not uniform, so there may be multiple shades of blue in the wool that has been dyed blue. Those multiple shades can be seen in the finished yarn (and finished cloth) as well.

Our guide told us about this, the second oldest of the looms we would see.

I wish I could relate to you all that we heard...

... it was a LOT of information...

... and I don't remember it all!

There were some example products made with Harris Tweed -- athletic shoes by Adidas and Nike. This introduction of Harris Tweed into "regular" clothing is credited with reigniting interest in Harris Tweed.

Some examples of official Harris Tweed -- with the brand marks.

When our guide moved to the newest of the looms, which does the double width fabric, she showed how the weaver would tie the warp threads of the next bolt onto the warp threads of the just completed bolt -- I think she said that there 1400+ threads that must be tied in.

Video of the loom in use: https://youtu.be/t-nqVJXI_oQ

The blue arrow is pointing toward the shuttle on this loom.

Our guide behind the loom -- she had invited us to get behind the loom with her, but only Pat and I did so. Our guide was sitting on a seat with bicycle type pedals to run the loom.

A book with more Harris Tweed examples

The last area we visited in the Story Room was the "corner of shame" -- knock-offs of Harris Tweed that the Harris Tweed Authority has identified and shut down.

From https://www.harristweed.org/our-role/ :

Guardians of the Orb - Harris Tweed Authority
The Act of Parliament in 1993 brought into being the Harris Tweed Authority, a new statutory body, replacing the Harris Tweed Association originally set up in 1909.

In accordance with the Act, Harris Tweed cloth must be: “Handwoven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the Outer Hebrides, and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides.”

The Act ensures that all cloth certified with the Harris Tweed Orb symbol complies with this definition.

This legislation – alongside the work of the Harris Tweed Authority – allows the safeguarding of the Harris Tweed name, quality and reputation. 

For more information, visit https://www.harristweed.org/our-history/.

After leaving the Harris Tweed Authority, we returned to the shopping street. Pat wanted to get some Harris Tweed to make a jacket and she got a beautiful piece of red wool. 

Welcome sign in Stornoway.

We stopped for lunch and Joe got a "Luxury Hot Chocolate". 

After lunch, we headed back to the shuttle bus and went back to the ship.

Later in the afternoon when we were sailing away, a few pictures of the houses and land that we were passing...

... even though it was cloudy, it was still lovely...

Some old type windmills still being used on this headland

What a nice day in Stornoway!

Monday - Day 25 - Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland - part 1

On Monday, we stopped at the Stornoway New Cruise Port on the Isle of Lewis and Harris in Scotland.

I forgot to post some information from travel director Gage's port talk about Scotland... 

General information about Scotland

Scottish word for the day -- I think we can use this one in our daily life, "Excuse me while I tartle...".

Stornoway has recently opened a new port, that is about an hour's walk from town, so they provide free shuttle buses for the cruise ship passengers.

When we got into town on the bus, we could see our ship just a short distance away at the cruise ship pier. If only we could walk on water!

Carl would still like to see puffins, though we probably won't have a chance again on this trip -- but he did see "Dancing Puffin Vodka" in the window of the liquor store!

Looking up one of the streets in Stornoway

Town hall where the Harris Tweed Authority is located -- we were wanting to visit it, and had heard that there were tours each hour starting at 10am. I checked my phone when we got onto the bus and found that there were tickets for the tours and that the tours at 10am and 11am were already sold out, and only 4 tickets remained for noon -- so I got them for the 4 of us (Pat and Joe, Carl and me). We still thought we might be able to go in and look around, but the access was only through the tour, so we decided to walk around the town until our tour time at noon.

We had passed one church and it seemed to have the gates out front closed. When we got to this church, Joe said that the previous one must have cost to enter, as this was the "Free" church of Scotland.

We stopped at some shops -- this was a replica of a Black House or Block House displayed on the sidewalk in front of a yarn shop.

Information from the web:

A blackhouse (taigh-dubh) is a traditional dry-stone dwelling with a thatched roof, once common across the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles. They featured a central hearth without a chimney, dirt floors, and an end shared with livestock. Two major preserved sites are on the Isle of Lewis: the Blackhouse, Arnol and Gearrannan Blackhouse Village. 

Key Features of Blackhouses 

Double walls: Thick dry-stone walls packed with earth for insulation. 

No chimney: Smoke drifted out through the straw or reed thatch, blackening the interior walls. 

Shared roof space: Humans lived at one end and farm animals at the other under one roof

One of the shore excursions offered by the cruise line would visit the Gearrannan Blackhouse Village. (We didn't take it.)

Shops along the High Street

Selfie in front of an interesting art piece on main street

Interesting bag of coffee beans in the window of the Hebridean Tea Store in Stornoway.

Lews Castle

Joe sharing his hat with a new friend

Beautiful hydrangea 

Pretty garden in front of one of the houses in town

More in another post!

Sunday - Day 24 - Runavik, Faroe Islands

We arrived at Faroe Islands early on Sunday morning. It was foggy but Jai, our cruise director, indicated that it might get sunny later.

Off our balcony -- looking south...

... looking north...

... looking east (straight ahead)

The tourist office had brought a small building on skids to the pier so they could tell us about tour opportunities.

A couple of the buildings we could see... we had learned on Iceland that "Budin" meant store, and although the main language on Faroe Islands is Faroese, followed by Danish, evidently "Budin" still means store. The yellow building is "RadioBudin" (aka RadioShack? -- electronics store). Across the street is "Farhat'Sa Pitsa" -- obviously a Pizza place!

When we got off the ship, we stopped at the temporary tourist office -- they told us about a bus trip that they were offering. We had wanted to go to Lake Toftavatn as we had heard there may be puffins there. The tour would go by there, but the fellow from the tourist office let us know that was not a place to see puffins, they are more in steep cliffs. We decided that it might be a good idea to take a bus trip since Carl was still not at 100%, and this would allow us to see things without a lot of walking.

Photo op at the Port of Runavik

We caught the bus at the Tourist Information office in town. This is the approximate route we took.

View of our ship out the window from the bus -- our ship's travel guide Gage was also on the bus trip (he is on the right in the picture).

Entry to the tunnel coming up (we would go around a roundabout to turn left onto that road)

At the Jellyfish Roundabout 

Jellyfish roundabout video: https://youtu.be/VMQYnFx0lAE 

We had a stop scheduled to see a sheep dog demonstration -- the buses that we were on were large van-type vehicles, small but comfortable. Unfortunately, we were in the back and it was tight.

Farmer and one of his dogs (and the three demonstration sheep)

The other dog that he would be using in his demonstration

The farmer told us about how well suited the border collie is for herding sheep. He also told us about two upcoming contests his two dogs will be participating in -- both in other parts of Europe. I think he said that Faroe Islands was sending three dogs and two of the three are his two dogs. You can also see some of the countryside (including the local church) and fjord out beyond the field, and the farmer's young daughter to the right.

Looking out over the scenery

Sheep farmer working with his herding dogs: https://youtu.be/cnCZtPrOgag 

If you'd like to follow them on Facebook or Instagram, the QR codes are on the poster.

Farmer and daughter waving as we left

We then drove to Lamba -- just seeing some of the farms and land -- there were a couple of horses down in that more yellow area of land.

A house with grass on the roof -- I think the guide said that this started during WWII as a way to prevent bombers from knowing where buildings were.

The other bus that was traveling with us -- you can see how narrow the roads were.

We had driven across the island to another part of the fjord where there were salmon boats and salmon farm in the water (we couldn't see the salmon farming pens from our perspective).

Coming back down toward Runavik where we got off of the buses

It was rainy and cold, so we decided to head back to the ship. Joe stopped to see if he could figure out what the price per KWH was at the car charging station (the cost wasn't displaying on the station).

But we did figure out the price for diesel and gasoline -- a little less than $10/gallon. Whew! Glad we're not fueling Gracie here!

The town had done a great job having folks out to help direct us where to go and what to see -- with bright vests and "ask me" signs!

It was a very friendly town!