A Day Ashore in Oban
Off the tender at Oban’s North Pier and into the town: the distillery and McCaig’s Tower, the views from Pulpit Hill, the walk to Dunollie, and Kerrera across the Sound.
Words by Hidden Scotland
A handful of cruise ships call at Oban each summer. They anchor in Oban Bay and bring passengers ashore by tender to the pontoons at the North Pier, right in the middle of the town, with taxis close at hand.
Oban wraps round its horseshoe bay, with the islands of Kerrera and Mull across the water, and the best of it is within a walk of the pier.
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01 · Oban
Oban Distillery
In the middle of the town, at the heart of the harbour, Oban Distillery is older than the town around it: it was founded in 1794, when Oban was still a small fishing village. Production is paused for now and its tours are being looked at again, but the shop and the Wee Still Bar are open, so check what is running on the day.
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02 · Battery Hill
McCaig’s Tower
The great granite ring on Battery Hill above the town was built from the late 1890s for John Stuart McCaig, a banker, to give the town’s masons work and to stand as a monument to his family. He died in 1902 before it was finished. The inside is a garden open to all, and the views through its arches over Oban, Kerrera and Mull are among the best in town.
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03 · Oban
Pulpit Hill
On the south side of the bay, Pulpit Hill gives the wider view. From the top you look beyond Kerrera, out over the Firth of Lorn to Lismore, Mull and the hills of Morvern, and watch the ferries draw their routes across the water below.
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04 · North of Oban
The Dog Stone and Dunollie
Walk north along the coast road past the Dog Stone, an old sea stack left standing in the grass, to Dunollie, a mile from the town. The ruin of the MacDougalls’ medieval castle stands on a cliff at the mouth of Oban Bay, and the family home below it is now a museum telling the clan’s story.
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05 · The Esplanade
Oban War and Peace Museum
In the old Oban Times building on the Esplanade, a small free museum run by volunteers tells the story of the town’s two lives. One is the flying-boat base and convoy port of the Second World War; the other is the holiday town of the steamers before and after.
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06 · Across the Sound of Kerrera
Kerrera and Gylen Castle
The little Kerrera ferry crosses from Gallanach, two miles south of the town, to the green island that shelters Oban Bay, with no booking: you turn up at the slipway and take the next boat. At the island’s southern tip, Gylen Castle, a MacDougall tower house of 1582, looks out over the Firth of Lorn. It makes a longer walk, so keep an eye on the time.
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