a golf course, extensive gardens and even a hydraulic li to
carry guests up from the town.
Tourism Flourishes
No doubt there were plans to get the seawater up there as
well! Work commenced in the 1880s, but financial problems
brought things to a halt and the crumbling ruins can now be
found amid rambling woodland on the high ground to the
east of the South Pier. e Hydro may have failed, where
tourism flourishes and it is estimated that, at the height of the
season, around 25,000 people stay in the local area each night.
e distillery offers tours, the seafood stalls provide tasty
snacks and the evening ceilidhs are as popular as ever. e
boats remain a popular attraction with fishing vessels, sea-
going yachts and, of course, the island ferries. e North and
South Piers form ‘bookends’ to the harbour. Ferries ran from
each, where CalMac operations are now based at the south
end, leaving the North Pier free for moorings and restaurants.
e prominent, ivy-clad ruin of Dunollie Castle guards the
northern approach into Oban bay. Excavations in the 1970s
suggest that this early fortification was abandoned during the
10th Century, but it appears to have been rebuilt 300 years
later. e area around Dunollie subsequently became part of
the semi-independent Kingdom of the Isles. e existing
castle ruins date largely from the 15th Century, but the
owners, the MacDougalls, abandoned the site and built a
large house in the nearby sheltered valley.
Transatlantic
Descendants and clan-members are encouraged to visit and
the remains of an historic herb garden have recently been
discovered in the castle grounds. By way of contrast, at
Gallanach, just south of the ferry to Kerrera, the first transat-
lantic telephone cable, to Newfoundland, was installed in
September 1956. More than 600 calls were made on its first
day and, eventually, it carried the presidential hot-line during
the Cold War.
e associated flat-roofed buildings, complete with hidden
subterranean caverns, are redundant, but still look west across
the islands towards distant Tir-nan-Og, the fabled Land of
the Ever-Young. I wonder how a child would draw that?Oban