Pulpit Hill

McCaig's Tower takes the postcards, but Pulpit Hill has the better line of sight. It rises 239ft above the south side of Oban Bay, and the extra angle matters: from up here you can see past Kerrera rather than just at it, out across the Firth of Lorn to Lismore, Mull and the hills of Morvern, with the ferries drawing their routes across the water below. Locals have known this a long time. The circular iron bench at the summit carries a plaque dating it to 1887, and in 1930 a direction indicator was installed on the edge of the top, naming each island, mountain and castle in view along with its bearing and distance. Some of it now points at vegetation, in fairness. The trees and scrub have crept up over the years, and the view down into the town itself has suffered for it, though the seaward panorama is still intact and still the reason to come.

The name has a decent story behind it. In Gaelic the hill is Crannag a' Mhinisteir, the minister's pulpit, and the accepted explanation involves the square-cut Minister's Stone at the top, said to have been the stand from which preachers addressed open-air congregations in the days before the town had kirks enough to hold them. Getting up takes ten to fifteen minutes on the signposted footpath from Dunuaran Road at the south end of town, near the Maridon guest house, steep in stretches but short. Or you can drive the whole way, winding up through the housing to a small car park near the public toilets, with a broad path covering the last bit. There are benches at the top and no charge and no crowds, which is the whole trade against McCaig's. Go at sunset with chips.