We had a slow start to the day at the cottage staring out of the windows looking at the very heavy rain and eating breakfast. Our plan for today was to take it easy around Oban after all the driving of the previous days.
We decided to brave it and go out. I drove us down into Oban and we parked on the practically empty main car park. The charging system was incredibly complicated – but it actually turned out to be free for the time on Sunday’s that we were going to be there for our potter. We wandered into the town and towards the seafront. By now it had stopped raining and we headed towards South Pier and the Calmac Ferry terminal where the big ferry from The Isle of Harris was just pulling in and unloading. It was strangely fascinating to watch this process going on. In fact we then stood rather mesmerised by all the comings and goings of ferries in the harbour. There was also a seafood place doing good business for 12 noon on a Sunday and a shop selling some new and exciting varieties of ice cream.
We reached the end of port pathway and then turned back, heading towards the South Pier. Now the sun was coming out and the views over to Mull and Kerrera islands were getting better and better, including a rainbow. There were quite a few people walking along the promenade either tourists or dog walkers and it was all turning out very pleasant, bearing in mind the weather forecast was 80% chance of rain. Shhhhsh don’t tell it. There didn’t seem to be much going on at the South Pier, lots of signs offering boat trips of one kind or another but nobody actually there. Perhaps they’d all gone out mackerel fishing earlier.
Past the South Pier we walked above a sort of beach. It wasn’t very pleasant being covered in colourful kelp seaweed. We continued our walk in the sunshine along to the War Memorial before we turned about. Now looking back towards town we could see our next destination up on the hill behind, McCaig’s Tower. We walked up the steep lanes at the back of the town and by the time we got there it was properly raining and the views had all but disappeared and the wind made it rather nasty to even attempt to look through the arches. However, you could still see a glimpse of something brighter and sure enough after a few minutes, the sun was out again and we had lovely views over the town and islands. It just goes to show that what Jayne commented on yesterday is true- don’t worry about a bit of rain up here as it’ll soon change because it’s typical to experience 4 seasons in 24 hours up here.
McCaig was apparently a banker who created the tower in order to give work to unemployed stonemasons of the town. Enid, who has been allocated the task of educating us on history for this visit, informed us that he’d intended to turn it into a museum to his family but he died before that could be completed. So today it stands as a sort of open air colliseum.
Talking of history, one thing I did notice was a distinct lack of fishing boats in the harbour. There seemed to be literally just a couple and yet Oban is supposed to be ’the seafood capitol of Scotland’. I’ve still not found out if there is a fleet somewhere else and Enid seemed a bit vague on this subject too. l’ll do more research and get back to you on that.
After our walk we drove back to Sleepy Bear for a quick change and rest and a slice of Joy’s excellent fig and walnut cake. Enid then dropped us back into town where Joyce, Jane and I had a date with 007 at the Phoenix Cinema. Our chance to see ’No Time to Die’ and our first visit to a cinema post-pandemic. It was great to be back. Afterwards we met up with Enid again and went for dinner at ’Coast’ which is part of the reason why Oban gets called the seafood capitol of Scotland. It was excellent. Scallops, langoustines, Cullen skink, hake, halibut, halloumi all featured in our choices.
Where shall we go to next? 