Day Trip To Oban on Wednesday 8th April 2015

Above, view from McCaig's tower. 

Day trip to Oban on Wednesday, 8^th April, 2015

I’m having a bit of a computer day today. The plan is to download all my recent photos from the memory card to the computer, maybe do a bit of editing on some of them, write and post a blog about my recent trip to Oban and then….. Hopefully, post a garden blog. Plus the obligatory peep into FB to see what’s happening over there.

The Oban trip was the first long day out of the year. It was a fairly early start; we left the bus station at 8am and arrived in Oban 12.10.

http://www.rome2rio.com/s/Arbroath/Oban

above, from the window of the bus. 

It was a long but worthwhile drive through some of Scotlands’ most spectacular scenery. We travelled from the east coast to the west coast passing rivers, lochs, mountain ranges and a whole heap of towns and villages along the way. We made a few local stops to pick up more passengers and then headed west along the coast to Dundee where the river Tay empties its loads into the North Sea. The river Tay is the longest river in Scotland and deposits a greater volume of water into the sea than any other river in the whole of the UK. From Dundee we continued west to Perth where we crossed the Tay on the Perth Bridge (also known locally as Smeaton's Bridge). We drove through Perth and headed out toward Crief. Some people got off the bus here and were picked up later on the way back. Crief is a lovely little town that I’ve only visited once a long time ago, maybe one day I too will get this bus as far as Crief and spend the day there.  After Crief the landscape becomes more mountainous and wild looking. We pass St Fillians, traveling along the northern edge of loch Earn and then passing right through the top end of the Trossachs National park.

above, from the window of the bus.

As we drove through Cranlarich Ben More was to the south of us. Then we began driving along the Northern edge of Lock Awe looking north toward  Ben Cruachain and  past falls of Cruachan.  We had breathtaking views of the Grampiam Mountains to the north and the Trossachs to the south. The journey was so frustrating at times, here were all the views and scenary I could ever want and I was trapped on a bus unable to get out and take photographs. I took quite a lot of photos from the bus but a combination of movement from the bus and strong overhead sunlight reflecting every where rendered most of them useless.  These few photos are all I have of that wonderful journey. We arrived in Oban on time and parked at the little harbour. From there we could look out over the sea and see the Isle of Mull to the west of us.  The return bus left Oban at 3.30 which only gave us 3 hrs and 20 minutes but we figured that was enough time to do what we had to do. We did the same bus trip last year and explored the town and harbour, this time we wanted to achieve two things. First we wanted to make enquiries about times, cost, frequency etc of the boat trips out to the seal colony in preparation for our next visit, and secondly, our main task of the day, was to climb to the top of McCaigs Tower and take in the views.

above, from the window of the bus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCaig%27s_Tower

There are 144 steps from the town up to the top of the hill, and I felt the effect of every single one. These steep steps are called Jacobs ladder, even the name has a sense of foreboding about it.

From inside the tower.

McCaig's Tower is a prominent ‘tower’ at the top of what is called ‘Battery Hill’ in Oban. It overlooks the town of Oban, the harbour, and the Isle of Mull which lies just offshore. It offers the best views available of the many ferries and ships coming and going from the busy little harbour. 

From inside the tower.

It is built of Bonawe granite which came from the quarries across Airds Bay, on Loch Etive. McCaigs tower has a circumference of about 200 metres with two-tiers of 94 lancet arches (44 on the bottom and 50 on top) there is also a single small open arch right at the bottom in an area where the land dips away and the tower had to be extended downwards. 

 The entrance to the tower.

The structure was commissioned, at a cost of £5,000 (which would be anything up to 10, 000 in todays economy)  by an ultra wealthy, philanthropic banker, John Stuart McCaig. Oh that bankers were still of the generous philanthropic variety.

Spring flowers just outside the tower.

John Stuart McCaig was his own architect. The tower was erected between 1897 and his death, aged 78 in 1902. McCaig's intention was to provide a lasting monument to his family, AND ( and I think more importantly)  to provide work for the local stonemasons during the winter months. Like I said,  oh for a banker of that variety these days. 

View from the tower.

McCaig was an admirer of Roman and Greek architecture and had planned for an elaborate structure based on the Colosseum in Rome. He planned to build a museum and art gallery in a central tower inside the present external structure.  

 View from the tower.

If he had lived long enough to see his plans through to completion, there would be what we have now, the circular external structure, plus an internal tower housing a gallery, a museum and many statues of himself and his family. Sadly his death brought an end to construction with only the outer walls complete. 

view from the tower.

The climb to the top was adventurous for me to say the least, but so very glad I persevered and made it to the top. We had a good look around, took loads of photos, marvelled at the views and fully appreciated the unique opportunity this position offered to see ships manovering in and out of the small harbour area. Fortunately the weather was great that day and we enjoyed our picnic sitting on top of that hill.

Watching the boats in the harbour from the top of the hill.

 

Above, this is the little boat that will take us to the seal colony next time. 

And then it was time to think about our descent. We took the road back down. It was a narrow winding road with steep incline and sharp curves and bends. Half way down we began to notice these brightly coloured knitted covers made by hand and obviously sewn into place while insitu.

They were sewn over lamp posts, flag poles and anything else that made itself available.

We met an elderly gent climbing the hill with apparent ease who viewed them with amusement and told us they just started ‘appearing’ about a year ago and no one knew where they came from. We took photos and continued on our way downhill.

http://www.alicestrange.com/

Then came across an artists workshop/ studio. She had a notice outside which invited you to go in and take a look which we did. Now I have to say much as I admired her work, and I did,  she lived up to he name. She was indeed  a little ‘strange’. 

She had a tiny but interesting workshop/ studio. I loved her unusual quirky work and the fantastic mosaics all over her hillside garden, (she said they were influenced by the famous mosaics in the Park Guell by Guadi at the Barcelona park) but, she was odd!!. 

above, banner on the side of her studio wall.

We felt as if we were intruding and she didn’t really want visitors and so we left her to her work, quickly.

above, her mosaics, all very reminiscent of Gaudi

We reached the bottom of the hill with just enough time for a quick refreshment stop and then headed back to the bus. And on the way back, we checked through our photographs, admired the view and planned our next trip to Oban and the boat trip to the seal colony.