The village of Leverburgh is named after Lord Leverhulme (creator of Sunlight Soap, and founder of Unilever), who bought Lewis and Harris in 1918. He had grand plans for An t-Ob, as Leverburgh was then known – it was to be a major fishing port with a population of 10,000 – but the plans died with him in 1925 and the village reverted to a sleepy backwater.