North Lewis – untapped potential for visitor spend​

With thousands of visitors setting their sights on the Calanais Stones and the Gearranan Blackhouse, and the beaches of Uig and Harris, too little attention is being paid to what’s available further north.

For those that do venture up to the Butt, there’s a sense that they simply take the obligatory photo before just heading back to wherever they came from, without spending much time, or crucially money, in the local community.

But that could be about to change, thanks to an initiative by Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn, the Galson Estate Trust.

They are currently in the process of recruiting a full-time officer to run their Visit North Lewis initiative, with a recognition that the project – and its potential for growth – deserves someone dedicated full-time to making it a success.

Jemma Macvicar, UOG executive manager, explained more about how the project came to be and what they hope to achieve from it.

“We have had some focus over recent years in trying to attract the cruise market and we were aware that there were tourists currently coming to the community to visit the Butt of Lewis, but just getting their photos and heading straight back and not really experiencing what the community had to offer – or importantly spending any money here,” she said.

“So with the Deepwater Port being established and more cruise visitors coming in we were introduced to some of the organisations that book the tours and from conversations with them it became apparent that they were very interested in some of the activities that we were already running for the community.”

In other words, it was all already there, it just needed a more focused marketing approach. Jemma said that among the activities on offer and which could also be offered to visitors, rather than just those residing in the community, were their heritage programme “Duthchas”,which runs through the autumn, and their health and well-being initiative “Sunnd”.

And once that surface was scratched so the potential was to become clear.

“Our programmes already offered things like ceilidhs, cookery demonstrations and trying your hand at different crafts and these were exactly the different experiences that visitors were looking for,” said Jemma.

She explained that the Urras itself does not want to get involved too much in providing the actual activities, but will look to work with various providers to ensure that North Lewis gets its fair share of a growing market.

“The brand has really developed so as for the Urras not to play a direct part or to give any experience, but offering a general taste of what life is like in north Lewis,” she said.

“So, for example, we’ve been working with the comunn eachdraidh and Sweeney. Between the two of them they can offer the crofting experience and a visit to the museum and get a guided tour from one of the volunteers to learn about local history.

“We have an event with the Niseach Chef based at the Clan Macquarrie Centre who offers cookery demonstrations and story-telling and sharing the recipes of his grand-mother and giving a real taste of delicacies from the area.

“The other one that’s been popular is the Ness Ceilidh Experience in the Social Cub with the Ness Malodeon Band and if they’re not available we can use other ceilidh bands and also the Claire Wilson Highland Dancing School.”

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An opportunity for growth

The tourism initiative really got underway when the Urras established their own campervan facility beside their re-built offices, after they were destroyed in a fire in 2019.

Prior to that various discussions had been held on where it would be located within the community, but with new offices being re-built from scratch on site, an opportunity presented itself to incorporate a camp facility into the wider project.

That has provided a source of income which the Urras is now able to re-invest in developing more facilities in the area – to exploit that untapped potential.

“Right now we are only dealing with around 10 to 15 per cent of the cruise boats that are coming into Stornoway, so there’s definitely room for growth,” said Jemma.

“At the moment we are bringing in around £14,000 to £15,000 to businesses and community organisations in our area over the summer, so it’s a substantial amount of money and really worthwhile. But undoubtedly there’s much more room for growth and an opportunity for more people to get involved.

“This year we’re also going to be looking at working with Spors Nis who are going to be offering cycle tours round the north of Lewis and we’re also going to be running an event here at the Urras, because there’s so much interest in how a community such as ours works, something that is unique when you look at an international audience… just telling the whole story on community ownership. So that’s a new market we’re moving into.”

Jemma said that when they initially started looking at the project “it was originally called Visit Galson Estate, before a change of direction was decided on.

“In conversation with tourism providers in the area it just wasn’t landing well because although it means a lot to us it’s not something that’s going to appear highly on people’s Google searches when they’re planning a visit to the area and it wasn’t making that impact in the market that we needed to,

“So in 2023 we re-branded as Visit North Lewis to try and get a further reach. Ultimately the brand is there to promote the area as a place to visit.

“Some providers felt there was a lot of attention towards the West Side curricular and going to all the fantastic locations like Calanais and Gearranan, but it was a case of how to we get people when they cross the Barvas Moor to turn right instead of left and it was that encouragement to try and get people to see that North Lewis has a lot to offer.

“So that was the thinking behind the re-branding – that although the islands are certainly big in terms of tourism, this particular area was maybe under-developed in that sense.

“We estimate that prior to this work taking place we were receiving 70,000 visitors to the Butt of Lewis each year but we weren't seeing that translating in them using the cafes, the shops, visiting different sites, etc.

“The Butt of Lewis is deemed to be a bucket list destination for people to reach, but they were turning round and going straight back so maybe they were just unaware that there’s more to do and more to see.”

And crucially, she says, “it’s not just about the tourists. We’re also looking to attract island residents – that this can be a good day destination for people. There’s fantastic things for the family to enjoy, like the Eoropie playpark, beaches and places to eat, so it can be a real full-day experience.”

A crucial stage in the development of the initiative will come with the expected recruitment of a full-time officer. At the moment, it’s being geared towards a graduate with relevant experience, but with the full intention that the post will continue to expand – and, indeed, prove self-financing.

“At the moment, with the number of different projects the Urras are dealing with, we don’t have the capacity to put the full focus on this and to get it to realise its full potential,” said Jemma.

“So we’re hoping to have someone employed and dedicated to promoting the area, making contacts with different tour companies and giving it that continuing focus so we’ll be able to realise the growth.

“The hope is that we can generate enough of an income from that to be able to sustain the person in the role longer than the initial year that we’ve received funding from HIE for.

“Our campsite returns a healthy income and we re-invest that money into developing more tourism facilities such as toilets. So we try to raise money from tourism to re-invest back into tourism facilities.

“We’re quite cautious that when we’re investing in tourism facilities and infrastructure that we raise that money from tourism activities, rather than using the money from the community turbines, as that is for the benefit for the whole community.”

A key partner in the initiative is Comunn Eachdraidh Nis. Anne MacLeod, operations manager, said it came at an incredibly important time as they have noticed a reduction in footfall due to the cost of living crisis and people just not having as much money to spend.

“CEN fully supports the efforts of UOG to promote North Lewis as a visitor destination,” she said. “The Trust has access to the skills and resources required to deliver a first-rate promotional initiative which could bring economic benefits for north Lewis.

“There is huge potential for growth. The area has so much to offer visitors, and we haven’t been very good at promoting ourselves in the past. We hope this initiative will turn North Lewis into a ‘must-see’ destination.”