What to do in Stornoway

We spent two nights there last May as a base to see Calanais Standing stones, the Blackhouse village and to drive up to the Butte of Lewis. I would think you would want to take an excursion out to the standing stones rather than spending time in Stornoway.

Stornoway is a small town, everything (even the airport) is walkable from wherever the tenders will land you at. But most of what you would want to see is out of town (some of which is noted above). You would be hard pressed, however, to get to any of them on the public bus network.

But in town you really should visit at least one of the HMY Iolaire memorials. In the same way as the Cabinet War Rooms are a must see place in London and the American War Cemetery in Cambridge, the HMY Iolaire disaster was a huge tragedy of WW1.
The Iolaire was a troop ship full of returning troops after WW1 when she went aground on a reef just off Stornoway on New Years Day on 1 January 1919.
205 men were lost- 175 from Lewis and Harris. Given the small population it was an incalcuable tragedy which still runs deep in the local psyche now.

Stornoway is very nice—I spent several nights there and really enjoyed it. In fact, I would like to go back. You could do what Beth suggested, which would be to visit places like the Callanish Standing Stones, the Blackhouse village, and other historic sites. But that really would involve a car. As Isn31c said, the bus transportation is more for locals than tourists so it would take you a bit of time.

So what I would suggest is head down to the harbor and see all the boats there. You could then walk through the town center, which is not very large and has lots of interesting buildings and cafes, and then head outside the town (via a very short walk) to a beautiful pathway through a lovely wooded area that will take you to Lews Castle. It is a beautiful building and the inside is just gorgeous. Inside the castle is a wonderful small museum that holds some of the Lewis chess pieces, which are carved chess pieces that were found on a Lewis beach in the early 1800s, and date back to the early 12th century. It is believed that they came from the Vikings. Most of them were carved from walnut ivory and are exquisite.

https://youtu.be/efx_4YxLFRc?si=5lZaasUJu4jNLrTn

Spoke to the singers dad in the pub on the harbour front
The castle grounds have nice trails through them.
Lewis is an extraordinary landscape makes Skye look as tame as Surrey.

A pint at the Stornoway Sea Fishing club has a certain something about it.
Its got to be a certainty tours will be offered by the cruise line.

The buses to Callanish depart Stornoway at 0950 arrive 1022 and 1305 arrive 1347 and depart back at 1420, 1627 and 1720

Those to the Blackhouse Village (now known in Gaelic as Garenin) depart at 0905 arrive 1003 with no return

To the Butt of Lewis at 1230, arriving at 1329, returning at 1359 or 1543.

I tried two years ago to put together a vacation for a friend who wanted to comprehensively explore Harris and Lewis, but was adamant she didn't want a rental car and this was the issue I found then. Lewis services were heavily cut in Covid and never recovered. The trunk route to Harris is good and to the airport reasonable, but apart from that fairly sketchy. No services run on Sunday for religious reasons.

The holiday was abandoned.

Oh yes... Stornoway on the Sabbath thats very very much a thing ,I believe they no longer chain the childrens swings up but it was a slow slow day there last year.
We also went out to Uig Sands ,great little museum ,the cafe is good and of course the white sand beach.
On your time frame maybe not possible without a taxi although buses do run out that way.
Some of the lesser local buses you have to call ahead or they dont run.

The dominant religion on Lewis and Harris is Scottish Presbyterian- with the 'Wee Frees'- the Free Church of Scotland being one of the more dominant. Their Calvinistic approach leads them to take the scriptures literally. The observation of the Sabbath derives from 'And God rested on the seventh day' in the creation story. Until 2002 the Isles had no links to the outside world on a Sunday- air services started that year and ferry services started in 2009- CalMac had to threaten to invoke Human rights legislation.
There are still no Sunday newspapers, and very restricted hours for the odd shop and the single petrol (gas) station which is open.

On North Uist and Benbecula there is a more balanced mix of religions, while South Uist, Eriskay and Barra are very strongly Roman Catholic with Church attendance of over 90% on a Sunday- reportedly the most Catholic parishes in Scotland.

Met two people on our travels who had moved from the mainland to thier respective islands because of religious choice.

The book 'Whisky Galore' is set on an island based on one of the mixed islands, which is carried over on to the first film but not the recent one. The Wee Free islanders finish their rescue work, of the whisky in question, as the bells of midnight toll - the Catholic islanders continue. In the recent film they all stop for the Sabbath bells.

Eileann nan Siar is one of two local authorities in the UK where business is conducted mainly in a language other than English. In this case Gaelic. The other is Gwynedd in Wales where Welsh is used as the council's first language.

And the inaccurate thing about both movies (especially the remake) is that they are based on the book of the same name by Compton Mackenzie, and his book was based on the wreck of the SS Politician.
That wreck happened off the Catholic island of Eriskay. But the original Ealing Studios movie was filmed on the neighbouring island of Barra. The street scenes in Castlebay are instantly recognisable to anyone who goes to Castlebay now.

So not only did the remake get a key thing wrong, it was filmed primarily in Aberdeenshire- hundreds of miles away.

Yes the remake is glorious, but it lacked an authenticity for me.

Yes, it is often fascinating to watch a film or TV series set or filmed somewhere you know as the tricks to hide it don't always work.

Your post reminds me that there are clear differences one can spot between west coast and east coast villages and towns, not just in Scotland, but Ireland and England as well, with Wales although not having an east coast its villages and towns follow the pattern. Those places sheltered by Ireland tend to follow an 'east coast' format. It can also be seen in Spain and Portugal as well.

West coast places, so including the islands, the villages tend to be sheltered more from the sea, with is going to be the Atlantic, more likely to be protected by a headland or set up river from the mouth than on the east as winter storms coming in from the Atlantic tend to be harder.