In 2009 we celebrated my dad’s birthday by going to Oban for a week and last month we did the same again! Despite some very changeable weather, we had a great time so I have a few blog posts coming up.
We had the most glorious weather for the first couple of days. If Scotland was always like this in the summer I would never bother going anywhere else. Oban is one of my favourite places in Scotland and I could happily live there. It’s fun just sitting by the harbour watching all the boats and ferries coming in and out.
However, Scotland is definitely not always to be relied upon for good weather. This was the day we left which was mostly torrential rain.
I very quickly resumed one of my favourite hobbies – photographing the Calmac ferries. This is probably my favourite of the trip, taken from Dunollie Castle.
And here is the castle itself. There’s not a lot of it left but it’s a nice walk and worth visiting for the views.
For my dad’s actual birthday we took a tiny ferry to the isle of Kerrera, just off Oban. The weather was wet and windy so it was just us and the postie!
There’s nothing much on Kerrera except sheep, cows, a handful of people and a cafe. The cafe is a good hour’s walk and mostly uphill but they had put up encouraging signs along the way – next stop cake!
Look at the difference once the sun came out! We had some soup and cake in a byre, which kept us going for the walk back.
We did the extra walk to see Gylen Castle too – this is like some idealised view of Scotland.
The walk back was much more pleasant, not least for being mostly downhill with lovely views back to Oban.
The ferry was actually full when we arrived but they came straight back for us.
Next time: around Argyll
