Ocean Explorer Centre – Microscopes, Sea Cameras and Lunch
A few hours.
The route
When the rain comes in over Oban, the Ocean Explorer Centre at Dunbeg is a brilliant place to take curious children.
It's free, it's all under one roof, and it's full of things to try, from microscopes and live underwater cameras to a giant globe of the sea bed, with a friendly cafe next door for lunch. It's a good one for a wet day.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Dunbeg
A morning of marine science made for small hands, on the shore just north of Oban. Give the exhibits an hour or so, then have lunch in the cafe next door.
About three hours
Ocean Explorer Centre
An attraction
The Ocean Explorer Centre is at Dunbeg, by the A85 on the shore beside Dunstaffnage Castle. Park for free beside the centre. It sits on a university campus, so the car park is busier on weekdays. This is the visitor centre of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, and it's free to go in, with donations welcome. Children can look at a drop of sea water down a powerful microscope, turn the big 3-D globe of the ocean floor, spot what lives under the pontoon on the live cameras and watch short films in the Arctic cinema. Look out, too, for the huge model of a flapper skate, a giant ray. The centre opens Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, from April to mid-November. At weekends, and from mid-November to March, ring 01631 559 123 before you set out to check it's open. There are toilets inside, and no dogs are allowed except guide dogs.
The Beach Cafe
Lunch
Lunch is next door at the Beach Cafe, which shares the centre's free car park. It's a 35-seat room with a view over the shore, serving soup, lunches and home baking, with breakfast and afternoon teas too. It opens 9am to 4pm on weekdays and 10am to 4pm at weekends.
If it rains
All of it is under a roof, which is the whole point on a wet day.
Poppies, Saulmore, a café in Oban.