Oban - arrival/exploration

Exploring Oban on my first day here. It's a small seaside town that feels very much like Paihia in NZ (without the nice beaches, but with more history). Oban is mostly used as a port on to the Hebrides islands, rather than a destination so somehow feels a bit less vibrant and happy than Paihia.

On top of the hill overlooking the town there's a kinda bizarre hollow circular structure, McCaig's Tower, architected and commissioned by a wealthy philanthropic banker around 1900. Turns out they stopped building it when he died, with only the outer wall completed. Nice views from there though!

Walking along the coast, you come to the ruins of Dunollie Castle, a properly old (1400s) fort. There seem to be a lot of small forts around here, must have been a fairly unpleasant region over the last few hundred/thousand years. Unfortunately it was closed for the day so I just got a distant picture through the trees.

Also interesting: all the signs here are bilingual: English and Scottish Gaelic.Read more