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The cutest little place that started as a fishing village, now thriving on the distillery in the heart of the town. Yes, we learned on our distillery tour that the town of Oban was once a small fishing village. The potential the village held was huge, and in 1794 Hugh and John Stevenson grabbed hold of the potential and created an awesome distillery. Oban is the main connection between the highlands and the south. The port of Oban is a busy port with ferries taking off all hours of the day and fisherman bringing in their fresh catch every morning.
Buildings like this can be found all throughout the town of Oban.. It’s no wonder we wanted to stay a bit longer there!
The harbour front of Oban!
Heading to Oban, we had absolutely no expectation. We had yet to see a picture of this place and only knew of the Oban Distillery. In fact, the distillery is what drew us to Oban. We found out about the distillery through our Friends of the Classic Malts membership, and just had to go see it! Little did we know, we were in for a real surprise heading into this quaint place! On our way into Oban from Glen Etive, we stopped at two castles, Castle Stalker and Dunstaffnage Castle.
Castle Stalker 🙂
The view of Castle Stalker from Castle Stalker View Cafe 🙂
Dunstaffnage Castle.. This was a nice surprise find on our way into Oban!!
{Traveler’s Tip… There is free parking coming into town from the north off of A85. You can pay to park downtown, or park here and have a nice walk through the backstreets to Oban’s center.}
We began our time in Oban on the distillery tour where we learnt a bit more of the distilling process, had a nice dram of whisky, and got to take home yet another souvenir glass. Seriously, the free Friends of the Classic Malts gig is the best thing we have gotten our hands on! (If you don’t remember what it is check out our Talisker or Dalwhinnie experiences!) We love going on all the tours, and surprisingly have learned something new with each one!
When we arrived to Oban, we noticed a huge tower as the backdrop to the town. Since our tour was within a half hour of getting to the town, we went up to the monument immediately after the tour was over. McCaig’s Tower is the perfect backdrop to the city of Oban. It was built in 1897 to give jobs to the unemployed people as a memorial to McCaig’s family. The walk to the tower is so lovely; weaving through small streets with the cutest houses lining both sides! And the view from the top, don’t even get me started.. It is gorgeous! This monument is perfectly placed so you can see all of Oban and the islands out at sea! The pictures don’t give in to the full experience of the sea breeze blowing in your hair as you look out on this quaint little town.
{Traveler’s Tip… Definitely make you way up to McCraig’s Tower. It’s a great place to have a picnic or just take in the views of the town! You can either walk up to it from downtown, basically taking any road leading up the hill, or there is a small parking lot at the base of the tower if you fancy driving up to it.}
Walking up to McCaig’s Tower. This tower sits on top of the hill overlooking the town of Oban.
The views from this tower are just lovely! You can see all of Oban from up here!
There’s a walkway along the inside of the tower and part of the outside.. What a gorgeous tribute to family!
The relaxed atmosphere of the town of Oban drew us in and kept us wanting more. So much so, that we decided to stay there for the evening instead of making our way south. On our way to Dunollie Castle, a castle right in town, we saw quite a few campervans parked on the side of the harbor. We decided we too would call that place home for the night! After we parked, we strolled the streets of Oban before making a nice dinner and relaxing in the van for the evening!
We kept finding buildings like this throughout Oban, and we couldn’t help but snap pictures of them all!!
We drove out to Dunollie Castle, luckily not even a minute outside of town, only to find it completely being restored.. You can see a bit of it on the top of the cliff here!
Dunollie Castle is a bit hidden here, but we thought this was much prettier than looking at the construction going on!
Wouldn’t this harborfront hotel be a lovely place to stay.. We passed it up and stayed in the van harbor front instead 😉
Down past these buildings in the perfect “wild camping” place! If you look closely, you can see Isobel just above the boat on the left!
Our bedtime view 🙂
This was Jay’s view while he was studying away.. Not too shabby if we do say so ourselves!!
A little peek inside Isobel.. The couch on the left pulls out into a bed.. and we have been busy with lots of remodeling, so we can’t wait to show you what she looks like when we’re all finished!!
Old ragged boats have a special place in our hearts!!
Just in case you missed it on our previous posts.. here’s a wee video of driving from Aberdeen to Oban.
