Oban Chocolate Company

View Photos

Add to List

Introduction

Oban Chocolate Company has been making chocolates on the Corran Esplanade since 2003, when local couple Stewart and Helen MacKechnie set the business up, and everything sold here is still made in the small factory on site. The range runs to some odd corners. The Chilli Chuffle and Pear William sit alongside strawberry creams and, famously, a Marmite chocolate, which divides customers about how you'd expect. The shop half carries the full selection with boxes and gifts, and the café half does hot chocolate made with Belgian chocolate, coffees, mochas and ice cream milkshakes, plus a counter of home baking. The empire biscuits and billionaire's shortbread have earned their own small reputations round the town. The building faces the bay a few minutes north of the main shopping streets, with outside seats for watching the ferries work in and out of the harbour. Dogs are welcome, and anything too fragile to travel can be ordered from their online shop once you're home, with free postage over £45.

Location

Oban Chocolate Company is at 34 Corran Esplanade, Oban, PA34 5PS, on the seafront road running north from the town centre, about five minutes on foot from George Street. Opening hours sit around 10am to 4.30pm daily but shift with the seasons, so check before a special trip. Oban is roughly 2 hours 30 from Glasgow by car, or three hours on the West Highland Line, with the station a ten-minute walk away. Phone 01631 566099.

What's nearby

The Corran Esplanade runs along the seafront towards Dunollie Castle and its museum, a mile north, seat of Clan MacDougall. In the other direction the town centre starts within a few minutes' walk, with George Street's shops, the CalMac terminal for Mull, Lismore, Coll and Tiree, and the Oban Distillery, founded in 1794, on Stafford Street. McCaig's Tower stands on the hill directly above town, a stiff ten-minute climb repaid with the best view of the bay. Ganavan Sands is two miles up the coast road for a walk after the sugar.