30.12.2025

An artist's impression of Spaceport 1, North Uist.

A new spaceport in the Outer Hebrides has announced it will not launch rockets on a Sunday – out of respect for the religious traditions of the isles.

Next year, Spaceport 1 is set to start blasting rockets from North Uist to beyond the outer edges of the Earth’s atmosphere.

But although the project will deploy cutting-edge technology and place the Western Isles at the forefront of the UK’s multi-million-pound space industry, The Sunday Post can reveal the spaceport is also staying true to the area’s traditional Sabbatarianism.

Many parts of the isles continue to observe the Sabbath and honour the Biblical commandment not to work or play on a Sunday.

Only last year, plans for the Tesco supermarket on the isle of Lewis to start opening on a Sunday were met with protests.

Documents relating to the new spaceport state that it has consent to open for extended periods throughout the week and on Saturdays – but add that there will be: “No Sunday working.”

One insider explained that the ban was introduced to respect the wishes of locals.

They said: “The area around the spaceport site is generally very quiet, with not many houses. But there is still an elderly population nearby that observe the Sabbath. So as a condition of the project going ahead it was agreed there would be no rocket launches on a Sunday.”

In the past, islanders didn’t hang washing outside on the Sabbath – and on occasions some church-goers even chained up children’s swings to help ensure peace and quiet.

In recent years, however, the traditions of Sabbath observance have been gradually eroded – although not without protest.

In 2002, around 60 campaigners gathered to meet the first commercial plane into Stornoway on a Sunday – and handed out leaflets saying travelling on the Sabbath was a sin.

In 2009, protesters prayed and sang a psalm as cars boarded the first ferry to sail from Stornoway to mainland Scotland on a Sunday.

A screening of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2018 marked the first time a cinema opened on a Sunday.

And in November last year a group of protesters gathered outside the Tesco in Stornoway when it became the first supermarket to offer Sunday opening.

Quelle: The Sunday Post