Town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland
Oban
A banker built a Colosseum-style tower above Oban to keep stonemasons in work, then died before it was finished. It still looks over the bay as the Gateway to the Isles.
Key information
- County
- Argyll and Bute
- Nation
- Scotland
- Known for
- Ferries to the Hebrides, seafood, McCaig's Tower, Oban Distillery
- Famous people
- John Stuart McCaig
About Oban
The tower that was built to give men work
Look up from Oban's seafront and you'll see what appears to be a ruined Roman amphitheatre on the hill. It is McCaig's Tower, and it was never meant to be a ruin. It is simply unfinished. John Stuart McCaig was a local banker and art critic. In 1897 he began the tower on Battery Hill, modelled on the Colosseum in Rome. His reasons were practical as well as grand. He wanted to give local stonemasons work and leave a memorial to his family. His plans included a central tower and statues of his relatives. He died in 1902 with the building still incomplete, and the statues were never made. The open arches now frame one of the best sunset views on the west coast, looking across to Kerrera and Mull.
A whisky distillery in the middle of town
Oban Distillery, founded in 1794, is wedged between the town's streets and the hillside. The Stevenson family started it years before the town itself had grown much beyond a few houses, and Oban later developed around it. It is one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland, working from just two stills. Its best-known whisky is the Oban 14 Year Old, a West Highland malt that sits between Highland and island styles.
Why so many people pass through Oban
Oban is one of the busiest ferry ports in Scotland. Caledonian MacBrayne boats leave for Mull, Coll, Tiree, Colonsay, Lismore and Barra, and the harbour is a constant shuffle of vans, backpackers and island residents going home. The town became the main way into the Hebrides once the railway reached it in 1880, bringing Victorian visitors from the cities. The island of Kerrera lies across the bay and gives the harbour natural shelter, which has made it a safe anchorage for centuries. That shelter was put to use in the Second World War, when Oban was an important base for RAF flying boats and a gathering point for Atlantic convoys.
Seafood straight off the pier
Oban is Scotland's seafood town. The catch comes in at the harbour and goes onto plates within hours, including scallops, langoustines, crab and lobster. The most famous spot is the little green Oban Seafood Hut by the ferry terminal, where queues form for fresh shellfish eaten outside with a view of the boats. Restaurants along the waterfront offer the same produce in more formal settings.
Pipes, Gaelic song and shinty
Oban has a long place in Highland culture. The first Royal National Mòd, the great festival of Gaelic music, was held here in 1892, and the Mòd has returned many times since. In late summer, the Argyllshire Gathering brings Highland games, dancing and some of the most closely watched piping competitions in the country. Shinty, the fast Gaelic stick-and-ball game, is also local, with Oban Camanachd carrying the town's colours.
A town older than the Victorians
Oban's story goes back thousands of years. Caves around the bay held Mesolithic hunter-gatherers some 8,000 years ago, and finds there gave their name to the Obanian culture, an archaeological label used for the coastal peoples of western Scotland. The area was later the heartland of the MacDougalls, Lords of Lorn. Their seat, Dunollie Castle, stands on a headland at the northern end of the bay. Dunstaffnage Castle, a thirteenth-century stronghold, sits a few miles up the coast. The modern town is overlooked by St Columba's Cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and completed in 1959.
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