17391: Soval Estate and Lodge, Soval, Lochs

According to local oral tradition, the original building that is now Soval Lodge was an inn before 1841.

When Sir James Matheson bought the Lews Estate in 1842 he could see the potental in dividing the Island into sporting estates. Soval Estate was created in 1850. At that time, it covered an area of 75,000 acres from Balallan in the east, across the Island to north of Dalbeg on the west side of Lewis. The estate had two salmon rivers, the Laxay and the Blackwater, and moorland rich in game.

After Lord Leverhulme bought the Island of Lewis (1918) the north section of Soval Estate from Garynahine to Dalmore was sold separately. The south section in 1924 became the 35,000 acre estate as we know it today.

Tenants of Soval Estate shootings and fishings:

1884-1887 – John Rigby, 11 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, London

1887-1889 – not let

1889-1890 – Lionel Inglis

1890-1891 – Gerald Fitzgerald; Hugo M Martin

1891-1892 – Alfred Brocklehurst, The Spinney, Melton Mowbray

1892-1893 – E Western, Grammar School, Langport, Somerset

1893-1894 – Colonel J Morland

1894-1896 – not let

1900 – Mr Millar (he was a Candidate for a Parliamentary Constituency in 1900)

1913-1914 – Earl Temple

1925 – John Bain, a Stornoway man who made his money in banking but was living in Chicago bought the estate and continued to lease it out.

1927-1950 – Henry Thornton bought the estate.

Currently owned by Richard Kershaw

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