Sea Wall And Tower, Lews Castle, Stornoway, Lewis

Sea Gate Lodge is located at Lews Castle in Stornoway, Lewis. The extensive series of boundary walls and sea walls surrounding the grounds of Lews Castle, also known as Lady Lever Park, likely date mostly from around 1845 onwards, coinciding with when Sir James Matheson began work in Lewis. The architect Charles Wilson is believed to have designed these walls, as well as the lodge itself, which faces the town and is situated opposite Stornoway Harbour. Notably, the walls at Cuddy Point were built in 1868 during a separate phase of construction, after Wilson's death in 1863.

The lodge is a single-storey, three-bay T-plan building with a front that faces the town. Originally, doorways were located in both re-entrant angles of the central gable, suggesting it may have been a double cottage; however, the left doorway is now blocked, while the right side retains a panelled door with a fanlight. The lodge features gabled slate roofs and has a further range at the rear with a twin-gabled south flank elevation, including a canted ground floor window on the left. Neo-Jacobean fireclay finials adorn the gable heads.

The walls are constructed of rubble and include crenellations along with intermittent, slightly taller projecting turrets. A larger square tower at the north end terminates the wall and has an altered or added top storey made of timber. This square-plan structure resembles a dummy tower house, featuring a crenellated parapet, rock-faced stonework, and raised quoins, with an entrance on the left side of the west wall.

At Cuddy Point, a large flat area has been created on a natural reef base. This extension to the original scheme is commemorated by an inscription panel that reads: "This wall at Cuddy Point is erected by me Anne Mary Perceval as a memento of dear love and gratitude to the best of sons-in-law Sir James Matheson Bart MP in commemoration of the anniversary of his silver-wedding-day kept at Lews Castle Nov 19th 1868." At the north end of this area, there is a slipway equipped with a pair of steel cran-hoists for a lifeboat, along with a modern shed at the head of the slip. The structure also features brick-corbelled bartizans.