The Fascinating Story Of A Longtime Friendship Between A South Carolina Small Town And A City In Scotland

In 1991, Pendleton High School geography teacher Jane Cahaly attended a business and education partnership conference in Washington, D.C., where she met a group of people from Stornoway, Scotland. Little did they know that this chance meeting would result in a friendship that would still be going strong decades later, with reciprocal visits back and forth between the two towns, making Pendleton one of seven sister cities in South Carolina. Yet, that is exactly what happened, and it's a beautiful story illustrating the idea of this world we all live in being smaller than it sometimes feels.

An official sister city agreement was signed by the local town governments of both Pendleton and Stornoway in 2002.

Stornoway is the largest town in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, with a population of about 7,000 as of 2022, and Pendleton is a charming small town in the upstate county of Anderson with a population of just over 3,500 as of 2021.

As of 2012, more than 500 high-school students, government officials, and business leaders had traveled between Pendleton and Stornoway.

Visits to Stornoway began in 1992 with a small group of Pendleton educators, including Ms. Cahaly. The group checked the town out and then brought their students for a visit a year later.

Then the following year (1994), students from Stornoway's Nicolson Institute answered with a trip to Pendleton. Both students, educators, and government officials have learned a lot from each other's culture and have also found common experiences such as the driver's license being a rite of passage growing up as well as Sundays being a quieter day with church in the morning.

Visits between the towns have been shown to have a positive impact on the local economy, with the overall estimate totaling an impressive several hundred thousand dollars for each community throughout the years!

One memorable experience for a a reporter for the Stornoway Gazette visiting Pendleton was roasting marshmallows by the fire, while for a Pendleton student visiting Stornoway, he learned quickly not to give the peace sign to someone because it holds the opposite meaning there!

Each year, Pendleton hosts a Spring Jubilee, and one of the fun highlights since this friendship began has been a performance by dancers from Stornoway's Nicolson Institute dressed in traditional Scottish kilts and argyle socks.

If you're from Pendleton and have participated in one of these visits to Stornoway, we'd love to hear about your experience in the comments section! Or perhaps you've been a part of the relationships with other sister cities in South Carolina?

To explore more of this unique SC town, check out these places to stay in Pendleton, SC.