[2] The new building was designed by Thomas Brown II in the Tudor Revival style, built in ashlar stone, and was completed in 1843.

[1] In April 1891, the courthouse was the venue for the trial of a group of crofters who had sought to occupy the land at Orinsay that their ancestors had farmed before the clearances in 1843.

The principal landowner, William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, eventually allowed the land to be broken up into small holdings in the early 1920s.

[3][4][5] In February 1919, the building was the venue for the public inquiry into the loss of the steam yacht, HMY Iolaire, which had been wrecked in a storm at the mouth of Stornoway harbour on New Year's Day 1919.

[6][7][8] The jury found that the officer in charge did not exercise sufficient prudence in approaching the harbour, and that the boat failed to slow down.