Harris Tweed

The world-famous Harris Tweed cloth is made in only one place: the islands of the Outer Hebrides - Barra, Uist, Benbecula, Harris and Lewis. All production processes should take place there. Anything made elsewhere is a fake, and actually a breach of the law. The Harris Tweed Authority makes sure that this is upheld.

There are four places in Lewis where the Tweed is manufactured. After spinning the wool, the yarn is taken to weavers, crofters basically, in the island who hand-weave it on a loom. After that, the rough tweed is taken back to the mill and processed into a finished product. There is/was a mill at Carloway, 16 miles west of Stornoway, which is an independent operator. The mills at Shawbost, 6 miles east of Carloway and at Stornoway are part of one industrial group, the KM Group.

The KM Group, responsible for 95% of all Harris Tweed made, has now been taken over by a Yorkshire textiles company, the John Haggas group. The owner, a spritely 75-year old, was looking for something to do and found the Harris Tweed industry floundering.

He has taken it on as a challenge for his latter years. Until 10 or 15 years ago, there were more than ten operators on the scene. Fierce internecine competition reduced this to two.