SCOTLAND - Greetings from Oban

Hello again everyone, you now find me in the Scottish west coast port of Oban. It took over 11 hours to travel up here by train from Kent yesterday and I was only 2 minutes late on arrival - that folks, is how trains should work!

Oban sits on western side of Scotland a little further down from Fort William where I was last year. It is very much the gateway to the Hebrides with ferries leaving regularly for Mull, Lismore, Colonsay, Coll, Tiree, South Uist and Barra. It's also a fishing port and markets itself as the "Seafood Capital of Scotland" In fact in the last 24 hours I have only eaten fish! Last night it was Haddock and Chips from the chippy (they don't eat Cod in Scotland for some reason), lunch time was Dressed Crab and tonight it was back to the chippy for Lemon Sole and Chips. I can keep going tomorrow too as there are several stalls in the town serving Mussels in White Wine, hot in a polystyrene container to take away! 

What is also really good here is that the seagulls don't seem to bother you if you sit on the harbour wall eating - now there's one for a university degree dissertation "Why are Scottish seagulls better behaved than English ones?"

Oban Harbour with McCaigs Tower on the hill behind

When in Scotland of course the best place to start exploring is the local distillery. Oban's is right in the centre of town and although owned by the same company (Diageo) as the Dalwhinnie distillery I visited last year, the tour was completely different and therefore also very interesting. The tasting included a whisky that retails at £100 per bottle - unfortunately, not being a whisky drinker I couldn't really tell the difference between that and the normal stuff!

The washback where the fermentation takes place

The still where the distillation occurs

For a good view of the harbour and of the ferries coming and going you need to climb up to McCaigs Tower or Folly, the colosseum shaped building on the hill behind the town. It was commissioned  by local philanthropist John Stuart McCaig in 1897 to provide work for the local stonemasons. Unfortunately McCaig died before it was finished and only the shell remains but it gives good views and the inside is laid out as a garden.

Don't be fooled by the locals wandering round in t-shirts and shorts, the weather is just warm enough for an Englishman to take his coat off. Neverless I did walk along the coast to Ganarvan this evening and sat on the beach for a while, however, there seem to be loads of jellyfish around here at the moment which rather put me off a paddle!