We used to live just outside the town of Oban, which is in Argyll up on the west coast of Scotland.
Its a beautiful wee port town, which looks west over the sea towards the Isle of Mull. It gets awesome sunsets on a fairly regular basis (like the one above we saw when we were there in late October).
We still have a few ties in the area and as such visit quite often. We were there this last week, with the pic above taken yesterday morning. The view above is taken looking in a North Westerly direction along the esplanade. The land on the left is the isle of Kerrera, with the mountains you can see behind lying in a remote area of Scotland called Morvern.
Oban sits on this beautiful bay which is well sheltered by the isle of Kerrera. Again, its Kerrera you can see in the photo above, but this time the mountains you can see at the back are on the Isle of Mull (which is a one hour ferry ride from Oban).
Oban is known as the gateway to the isles. Above you can see a new transit arena that was opened there a few years back. Noting that I took this picture yesterday, the marina was empty, but in summer it gets completely packed with yachts, as its a great place to stop on your way to the isles.
Its possible to catch ferries from Oban to a lot of islands including Mull, Kerrera, Lismore, Coll, Colonsay, Barra and South Uist. I love seeing the ferries coming and going - it really makes the place feel quite alive - the port is always busy.
Again, its the epic sunsets I love there - and they are so frequent. You'd be hard pushed to visit Oban for a few days and not catch one.
The town also has many other attractions, like the Oban Distillery, which is right in the town centre (pic above). Its produces a very well respected 14 year old malt whisky, which is its standard offering, although also produces eye-wateringly more expensive older malts !
It also has a colosseum ! You can see it in the pic above. It sits high on the hill overlooking to town. Its actually just a folly called McCaig's Tower. It was built in the late 1800s, funded to provide work for some of the locals who were hard pressed to find jobs at the time. It has a lovely garden inside and you can get great views out over the islands from it.
The view above looks south over the town centre. The main town strip (George Street) is on the left, which has all the tourist trap shops you would expect, plus 4 different fish and chip shops (all of which are good with the fish being very fresh and landed right there in the port), and there is also a cracking Italian style ice cream shop there (the pokey hat). We always stop and indulge in both the ice cream and the fish and chips when we are there (and we did so with the fish and chips on friday).
This past sunday, it was beautiful. It was really cold and a frost was covering everything, but it was lovely and clear. Looking at the pic above you'd think it was quite warm, but it was about 1 degree centigrade. Even so, I just had to stop the car when I was driving through in order to take a few pics.
It is very well known for its seafood. The building with the red roof in the pic above is one of the more popular seafood restaurants (EE-USK) - and you can buy very fresh seafood right on the dockside (just where this photo was taken from).
The photos in this post were all taken during our last three visits to Oban. Two in October and then last week. Although we lived there for 8 years, I still cant get enough of the bay when we visit - it really is lovely. Even though we now live 2 and a half hours away, we still enjoy the drive through the highland scenery to get there, and I'm sure we'll continue to go back and visit. Its such a lovely place.
