Borve Pottery tucked away just off the main road, overlooks the Borve River. If you are over on…read morethat side of the island you must go in for a visit! The pottery is beautiful! They have a huge range of items from plates, to bowls, to vases. My favourite is the pottery wine glasses. They come in a range of colours, they are slightly expensive but will last a lifetime and are simply stunning. The shop isn't very big, but it has a very personal feel to it. The owners are incredibly helpful. The best pottery on the island in my opinion!

We visited The Celtic Clothing shop in 2016. It was simply wonderful!!…read more The Hebrides Jewerly we bought was beautiful! We loved the Braveheart Bears we got for our friends little girls:) It is a wonderful shop that reflexs the kindness of the Scottish people. The owners even invited us to there home to see how the Harris Tweed was woven. How great was that!

Celtic Clothing in Stornoway is the place to go if you want to hire a Kilt for a function…read more Helpful, friendly staff who take time and great care to ensure you get what you're looking for. Wide range of tartans and sizes are available for hire along with a wide variety of accessories, all for a reasonable price (for kilt hire!) It's a must to book a fitting and kilt hire in plenty of time though to ensure you get what you're looking for as they can get really busy, especially when there are big Island weddings and special occasions like the school 6th year dinner dance. If you're looking to splash out then you can have a custom kilt handmade to your exact request by an experienced kiltmaker. They also have for sale a small selection of ladies jewellery and tweed accessories available, along with clan crest cufflinks and kilt pins, hip flasks, ties and so on.

The Hebridean Hobby Shop opened recently and is proving to be a much valued shop. It is the only…read morededicated shop to hobbies such as painting, crafts, jewellery making and such. It is a small shop filled with crafting items so you need to walk around carefully watching your bag does not hit into the shelves. It is about time we got a dedicated hobby shop but the one bad thing is that they are quite expensive. Certainly not a place to go for all your crafting needs if you are on a budget! You are able to walk there from the town centre although there is usually a space or two outside for parking.

The only dedicated hobby & craft shop on the Island is just a couple of minutes walk from the town…read morecentre carpark, which is good as though there is street parking it's usually difficult to nab a free space. They stock a wide range of goods from paper and card supplies, to stamping, knitting, glass painting, model building, beer brewing kits and so on. The shop itself is quite small and packed full of things but though the range of goods is wide they tend to only stock a small selection of goods in each category. Unfortunately too they're rather expensive so unless I'm in desperate need for something I usually just use the internet which is a shame really as the staff are always friendly and helpful. Worth a browse around anyway, you might find out about a new hobby you'd like to try!

Mosaic is a great wee shop in the centre of town. It has been painted a blue/green colour so you…read morecan't miss it. It is a small shop but it has lots of beautiful items. The shop has a clean fresh feel to it with wooden floors and white walls. They sell a range of gifts as well as items made by local crafters. From Harris Tweed cushions and bags to jewellery and notebooks. They also sell incense and beautifully made candles. This shop is definitely worth going into when visiting Stornoway, it is unlikely you will not find a gift (or three) that you like. The staff are friendly and helpful and if they have sold out of an item you are looking for they will re-order it for you.

A great little independent gift shop relocated to the town centre…read more Bright, clean and airy inside they stock a nice variety of gifts and trinkets aswell as jewellery, glassware and a fab selection of candles, bath bombs and cards. The emphasis is on the more modern, quirky but beatiful items, though sometimes items can be a bit on the pricey side. They fully support local craftspeople and stock a range of handcrafted local items including tweed bags and notebooks. The staff are always friendly and super helpful, well worth a visit.

Maclean, Mair Nicolson and Co, more commonly known as Nicolson's to locals is one of two newsagents…read morefound in the centre of town. They are the smaller of the two but stock much more magazines. They have an entire wall filled with magazines of all kinds music, fashion, cars, knitting, pregnancy etc. I've found I can usually find the magazine I'm looking for here when the other newsagents doesn't stock it. They also have the daily newspapers. They also have shelves full of puzzle books like sudoku and crosswords, local magazines from Comunn Eachdraidh's, fios etc. To the back of the shop is a section for stationary, cards, gift wrap and pens. An added bonus since Woolies closed down. They have a selection of confectionary, soft drinks and a fridge with sandwiches as well. So many times when you go in here for a paper you come out with much more!

Nicolsons is a great little local newsagents…read more They stock a wide variety of magazines and newspapers from national to local along with soft drinks, filled rolls and sandwiches, sweets and tobacco. You can order your newspapers and magazines here to make sure you get them everyday. They also have a great selection of stationary, party stuff like balloons and crepe paper, diaries and notebooks and a fab selection of greetings cards at very reasonable prices. Staff are always very helpful and friendly. The only downside to the shop is that it's quite small so can sometimes feel a tad claustrophobic

Blythswood book shop is a very small bookshop located just off the main street in Stornoway. It is…read moreat the top of a cobbled street (along from the great chip shop). It is small but full of books of all varieties. I really like coming to this shop. It is quite amazing what you can find in there! Sometimes relatively recent books to older book you have always wanted to read but struggled to find a copy of! Their books are affordable and it's not uncommon to leave with an arm full. There is usually only one member of staff on when you go in as it's a pretty quiet shop but he/she is friendly and often up for a yarn when you go in. If visiting it cold be worth a look to see what gem you may find!

Bayhead gift house is a treasure trove of goodies, you are guaranteed to find what you are looking…read morefor here! It is a ten minute walk from the centre, which is advised as parking can be very difficult to find. The shelves are full of ornaments, toiletry sets, kids items. The one bad thing is that it is so filled with items that you have to move around the shop very carefully so that you do not knock anything over. The sales assistance are helpful and the shop always appears clean and relatively tidy. It also has many tourist souvenirs so you can take away a reminder of your holiday here.

The Bayhead gift house is a great shop that's a short walk from the town centre…read more Fab place to go if you can't think of what to get anyone as they're something here for everyone, great selection of china, dishes, glassware, photoframes, candles, ornaments as well as a selection of electrical gadgets, watches, decorativ lighters, diaries, notebooks and more! They have a nice selection of Stornoway/ Lewis souvenirs and also stock daily papers, soft drinks and sweets. Bargain prices and friendly helpful staff, a real treasure trove of finds.

Oiseval is another great gallery on the Island. It is hidden away on the west side. It is about 20…read moreminutes from town, you need to take the turning to Shawbost and when you reach the village of Brue you will see the gallery to your right. The photographer is James Smith, to get an idea of the pictures in the gallery I'd recommend visiting his website. His photos of the Islands are stunning and if you rather a gallery with pictures rather than paintings then this is the place to go. The staff are friendly and helpful and it's easy to spend an afternoon here.