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Oban

The handsome and lively Victorian port of Oban is always busy with boat traffic criss-crossing between the islands of the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Protected by the length of the island of Kerrera, Oban’s harbour is the finest on the west coast, with three piers and plenty of room for its still-active fishing fleet, a multitude of holiday craft and the ever-busy ferries. Tourism is by far Oban’s most important industry but the town does have its own distillery. The Oban Distillery in Stafford Street produces a whisky that is one of the six “classic malts” of Scotland, and has tours showing the distillery at work. This is one of the smallest distilleries in the country, with just 2 pot stills. The whisky is a lightly peated malt, and the tour includes a free dram.

Another local industry is glass. Oban Glass, part of the Caithness Glass group, also welcomes visitors to watch the process of glass-making from the selection of the raw materials to finished articles such as elegant paperweights. Samples of their products are on sale in the factory shop.

By the North Pier, World in Miniature displays some 50 miniscule “dolls’ house” rooms in a variety of historical styles, including two furnished in the manner of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and, like the others, built to a scale of one-twelfth.

The most striking feature of Oban however is a completely useless building. High on the hillside overlooking the town stands one of Britain’s most unforgettable follies, McCaig’s Tower, erected by John McCaig between 1897 and 1900. On the foundation stone McCaig describes himself as “Art Critic, Philosophical Essayist and Banker”. He was motivated by a wish to provide work for unemployed masons in the area and, while a less romantic man might have built a Town Hall or a school, McCaig decided to build a replica of the Colosseum in Rome which he had admired on a visit there. His enormously costly project was designed from memory and its similarities to the original building are general rather than precise. McCaig had intended that a museum and art gallery would also form part of the complex and that large statues of his family would be stationed around the rim. None of this came to pass. He died in 1902 and his sister Catherine, who inherited his fortune, did not share her brother’s taste for such a grandiose monument. John McCaig’s Colosseum remained a dramatically empty granite shell, a wonderful sight when floodlit and adding an oddly Mediterranean aspect to this picturesque town.

The oldest building in Oban is Dunollie Castle, the ruins of which can be seen on the northern outskirts of the town beyond the Corran Esplanade. Much admired by both Sir Walter Scott and William Wordsworth, the castle was once the seat of the MacDougalls, Lords of Lorne, who still live nearby at Dunollie House (private). Little remains of the castle now apart from an impressive ivy-covered Keep rising majestically from a crag. North of the ruins, near the beach at Ganavan, is the Clach a’ Choin, or Dog’s Stone, where, legend has it, the giant Fingal tied up his dog Bran. The groove at the base is supposed to be where the leash wore away the stone.

On the Corran Esplanade is the Oban War and Peace Museum, which has photographs and military memorabilia. There is also a model of a flying boat with a 14 feet wingspan.

The Oban Rare Breeds Farm Park at Glencruitten has, in addition to rare breeds, a pets corner, a woodland walk, tearoom and shop. And at Upper Soroba is the Oban Zoological World, a small family-run zoo specialising in small mammals and reptiles. The Puffin Dive Centre at Port Gallanach is an award winning activity centre where you can learn to scuba dive in some remarkably clear water.

Armaddy Castle Garden, eight miles south of Oban off the B844 road for Seil Island, is another of the local gardens that benefit from the area’s mild climate.