For generations walkers, pagans and artists have freely roamed around the standing stones at Calanais on Lewis, drawn by the site’s monumental scale, its coastal views and the spiritual impact of the rising sun and moon there.
But there are growing fears that proposals by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to introduce an admissions charge and control access to the neolithic site for the first time, could have a significant impact on those freedoms.
Land access campaigners fear it would set a precedent for Scotland’s other neolithic sites. Pagans and artists are alarmed about the potential restrictions to their rights to worship and work there.
Julian Cope, the former Teardrop Explodes singer-songwriter who has written extensively on prehistoric monuments and knows Calanais, said it was an “excruciating problem because it shouldn’t be a problem”.
The large cruise ships that threatened to overwhelm the site were “awesomely awful”, he said. “I don’t know that I have the answer other than the druids and moon worshippers and new pagans are just going to have to fight for it.”
Popularised by the historical fantasy series Outlander and the Pixar movie Brave, Calanais, also known as Callanish, has become the most visited attraction in the Outer Hebrides thanks to cruise ship tours. That has already damaged the fragile site, a scheduled monument, but visitor numbers are expected to continue rising once a new deepwater port built for much larger cruise ships opens in Stornoway, the main town on Lewis, for the 2024 season.
The trust that runs Calanais visitor centre, Urras nan Tursachan (UnT), forecasts visitor numbers will nearly double to 220,000 a year by 2035 and is building a larger £6.5m facility to help it cope.
While the visitor centre already has an entry fee, the stones are free to tour. But the tourism projections and increasing damage have forced HES, which owns the stones, to propose a single admission fee for the site and visitors centre to help it meet its costs.
There are no details yet on how that would work, and the proposal also faces legal hurdles. Under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 it is unlawful to impose an admission charge for non-motorised access to land that is currently free to cross. Calanais also has historic footpaths across it, accessed by unlocked gates, giving visitors additional rights of access.
The Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society, or ScotWays, said HES would either need ministerial approval for a new bylaw or Scottish parliament agreement to amend the 2003 act. Both those steps would be subject to public scrutiny.
Richard Barron, the chief operating officer of ScotWays, said many other historic sites in Scotland were experiencing visitor pressures but remained free. “HES is in danger of setting a precedent that could undermine Scotland’s hard-won and well-loved access rights, which are in themselves a valuable part of our cultural heritage. Is this really the only possible option?”
Philip Carr-Gomm, a former chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, said HES could follow English Heritage’s lead at Stonehenge and allow pagans and druids free use of the site outside normal hours four times a year, for the summer and winter solstices, and the spring and autumn equinoxes.
Yet even that would be insufficient, he said. Calanais is particularly linked by pagans to the full moon, who need to visit at night throughout the year. Paying for access to a religious site was itself questionable, Carr-Gomm added.
Jill Smith, a performance artist who lives on Lewis, whose work featuring Calanais was recently published by the Fruitmarket gallery in Edinburgh, said she was “really shocked” that an admissions fee was being considered.
“A lot of people like me feel that it’s not just an archaeological site. It is still alive; it’s connected to the earth and it’s connected to the other sites,” she said. “It wouldn’t work just to have special permission to go in at particular times. I just feel you can’t cut this [place] off.”
A HES spokesperson would not be drawn on any specific details about the scheme. “Proposals for our partnership with UnT to deliver an enhanced visitor experience and help support conservation costs to the monument are in the early planning stages,” she said. “We will be working with UnT to engage with communities, within the island and beyond, and key stakeholders when there are further developed proposals for the site.”
Helen Woodsford-Dean, acting deputy presiding officer of the Scottish Pagan Federation, members of which often hire HES sites for weddings and other ceremonies, said they would expect the agency to “consult fully” about any entrance fees and access restrictions. “We have to trust that HES has the best intentions at the heart of any of their decision-making – this is their core expertise after all,” she said.
• This article was amended on 8 and 9 October 2023 to clarify the views of Helen Woodsford-Dean.
