Scotland IV: Oban

I grew up in a ferry town, so I know that there's something to be said for "Island Time" that extends to the ports that tether those islands to the mainland. Wind, tide, and mechanics are the deciding factors in when "the boat" leaves, or if it leaves at all. We were already a little windblown and soggy when we arrived in Oban, but ready to brave the elements when we hurried to the ferry dock to catch the 11:20 boat to Mull. What we learned is that yes, the 11:20 boat would be leaving, but they were expecting to cancel all later sailings due to weather... in other words, we could get to Mull, but there was no guarantee we would get back. Since our rental car was due in Glasgow the next day, we decided to use this stranding as an excuse to slow down and explore Oban.

Oban might not have amounted to much more than other villages along Scotland's west coast, except for the fact that the railroad came there in the Victorian era. With the railroad came tourism, and with tourists came the sort of 19th century architecture that I've come to expect in coastal UK towns; stone hotels growing up several stories, brass bannistered and capped with slate roofs. We discovered several other remnants of Oban's 19th century boom as we explored. Fortified with tea and flapjacks (hint: not a pancake) from the Little Potting Shed cafe, we climbed the hill to McCaig's Tower, which gave us a view of the town and a starting point for more urban hill walking. The "tower" itself is an eponymous monument to Mr. McCaig's family, and encircles a lovely, wild garden.

Our wanderings took us through neighborhoods and up to a hill on the south side of the harbor, then back along the promenade to the north side of town. By this time the sun was trying to come out, and the reason for our cancelled ferry became evident... the wind was blowing out of the NorthWest at what I estimated to be a "small craft advisory," at least outside the harbor. Inside the harbor itself, the water turned a slate grey colour. We had donned all of our layers at this point (long sleeves, insulators, jackets, scarves...) but still found ourselves wind blasted by the time our distillery tour came around!

The ferry we would have taken back from Mull docking in a harbor full of whitecaps 

the "just let me get my hair out of my face" selfie

 If I'm being honest, I was more concerned about missing our scheduled tour of the Oban distillery if we were stranded on mull than I was about getting our rental car back to Glasgow. It turns out that I rather like a nice whisky, and Scotland is known for exceptional whiskys (Scotch being that subset of whiskies that is made of malted barley and aged 3 years + a day in Scotland).  The Oban distillery has been at it since the 1790's, and they are rather good at it! I was happy to learn that my home state contributed the pine for their newest Washback (the tubs where fermentation happens), and thus contributes indirectly to the creation of Oban's fine product. Of course, our tour included a taste straight from the cask. "Cask strength" whisky comes in at 50%+ ABV, which is diluted to 40%+ ABV for packaging. Much of the final flavour comes from the casks themselves, so our guide couldn't tell us what the final aging process entails. Regardless, the final product was delicious!