Oban on Foot – Dunollie, the Harbour and McCaig's Tower
A day on foot, from Oban station and back.
The route
Oban is the town most people see from a ferry queue, and it's worth a day of its own.
The railway ends at the water's edge here, the boats for Mull and the islands beyond leave from beside the station, and the whole town can be walked. This day is on foot from the station and back, about 4 miles in all. It takes in Dunollie, the MacDougalls' ruined castle at the mouth of the bay, a small free museum, a distillery older than most of the streets round it and the pier where the ferries load. Above them all stands McCaig's Tower, the ring of granite arches on the hill, with the bay and the islands laid out below it.
The day
Oban
The morning starts at the station at about 9.15am and belongs to the shore: a flat walk along the Esplanade with the bay beside you, as far as the trees below Dunollie. The afternoon keeps to the few streets between the two piers. The steps up to McCaig's Tower are the one real climb, and the view from the top ends the day.
St Columba's Cathedral
It's a 14-minute walk from the station, along George Street and north on the Corran Esplanade, to St Columba's, the Catholic cathedral: not the Episcopal St John's, which you pass first on George Street. Its tall tower of pink granite stands on the shore road. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of the red telephone box, designed it, and it was built between 1932 and 1959 to replace a cathedral of corrugated iron. If the door is open, step in quietly to see the carved oak panels in the sanctuary.
8 min on foot
The Dog Stone
An attraction
The walk on takes 8 minutes. The Esplanade's pavement ends at the town's war memorial, just before the little lighthouse, so cross the road there and take the tarmac path into the trees, which Dunollie calls its Woodland Trail. A minute or two along it the Dog Stone stands just off the path, a great rough pillar of pebbly rock that was once a stack in the sea. The story goes that the giant Fingal tied his hound Bran to it, and that Bran's straining wore its foot thin.
5 min on foot
Dunollie Museum, Castle and Grounds
An attraction
A 5-minute walk on up the same path brings you to the gate of Dunollie, seat of the MacDougalls, once Lords of Lorn. Their ruined tower stands on a crag over the mouth of the bay, up a steep, slippery path. Below it the 1745 House holds the family's collection, including the Brooch of Lorn, said to have been seized from Robert the Bruce. It's open from 10am, Tuesday to Sunday, mid-March to the end of October, and the café does lunch on those days. One ticket lasts the whole season.
19 min on foot
Oban War & Peace Museum
It's a 19-minute walk back along the Esplanade to the Oban War and Peace Museum, in the old Oban Times building beside the North Pier. It's free and run by volunteers, and it tells the town's story well, from the fishing and the railway to the building of McCaig's Tower. The war years are here too: flying boats worked from the bay, with aircrews from Australia, Canada and the United States. Half an hour does it. It shuts at 4pm, at 2pm on Fridays, and for the whole winter.
3 min on foot
Oban Distillery
An attraction
Round the corner on Stafford Street, a 3-minute walk, is Oban Distillery, founded in 1794 by the brothers John and Hugh Stevenson, before there was much of a town here at all. With only two stills, it's one of the smallest in Scotland. You need no tour and no booking to go in: the shop sells bottlings found only here, and the bar pours Oban by the dram, and cocktails too, until about 4pm from October to March. Tours, when they run, are booked on the distillery's own page.
6 min on foot
Oban Harbour
An attraction
It's a 6-minute walk back down George Street to the Railway Pier, beside the station, where the trains have met the boats since the railway came in 1880. The ferries of CalMac, the islands' ferry company, leave here for Mull and beyond, and it's a fine place to watch one swing out past Kerrera, the island across the bay. The green seafood hut on the pier sells shellfish from its counter when it is open. If your legs have had enough, the day can end here, by the station.
17 min on foot
McCaig's Tower
An attraction
McCaig's Tower is a 17-minute walk up, by Argyll Street and Jacob's Ladder, 144 steps. John Stuart McCaig, an Oban banker, began it in 1897 as a family monument and, the town says, to give its masons winter work. He died in 1902 with only the outer wall built, a ring of Gothic arches on the plan of a Roman arena. Inside is a garden and a platform facing Kerrera, Lismore and Mull. The station is 13 minutes down: leave while there's light, or carry a torch.
If it rains
Oban is a good town in the wet, because half this day has a roof. At Dunollie the 1745 House is the museum, so go there first and keep the steep castle path for a dry spell. In town the War and Peace Museum and the distillery's shop and bar are three minutes apart, and the Oban Chocolate Company on the Esplanade, shut on Wednesdays from late September, has a window onto the chocolate being made. Keep McCaig's Tower for a break in the cloud, as there is no shelter at the top.
Worth a detour
- Ganavan Sands
Ganavan Sands is Oban's sandy beach, about a mile and a half on from Dunollie along the Ganavan road, half an hour's walk, with a view across the water to Mull and Lismore. The road has two sharp corners with no pavement, the first just past Dunollie's entrance, so take care and keep children close. The 417 bus runs back to the station about once an hour from Monday to Saturday, with none on Sundays. Check its times, and the last bus above all, before you set out, or it's the same road back.
- Isle of Kerrera
Kerrera, the island across the bay, is a day of its own. Its ferry doesn't leave from the piers in town but from Gallanach, 2 miles south: about 40 minutes' walk from the station along the shore road, or a few minutes by taxi. It's a small CalMac boat with no sailing to reserve, but you need a ticket before you board: buy it online, or at the ferry terminal in Oban before you set out. Check CalMac's timetable for the last boat back; a winter timetable runs from mid-October to late March.
