Day 21 – Fort Williams to Oban

We had an early departure time of 8:30 in order to make our 10am tour time at the Oban Distillery. After a quick breakfast, we asked the woman running the breakfast service if we could check out. She went around the corner and this is what we heard: 

Woman: “Room 3 is ready to check out.”
Ken the Owner: “Just get their money. 80 pounds. Cash.” 

Talk about zero hospitality. Ken has no customer service skills when it comes to running his B&B. 80 pounds is $120. Ken could get up off his ass from around the corner and come thank us himself as he takes our money…in cash. 

The drive to Oban took a little longer than estimated due to the reoccurring road work. Oban is a much larger harbor city than I had anticipated. Maybe it just feels larger because of all the vehicle traffic whizzing around the harbor. The Oban Distillery was founded in 1794 and the town literally grew up around it. The surrounding shops along the harbor encases the distillery. The entrance is on a small side alley.

Our tour started promptly at 10am. Again we were told that our phones could cause any and all of the distilling equipment to explode. The tour was thorough. They produce 1 million liters of whiskey per year and are considered one of the smaller distilleries. They focus on producing only 1 type of Whiskey, The Oban 14 Year Aged. The best part of our tour was when the guide pulled a sample directly from a 10 year old cask for us. All Oban Whiskey is 14 years old, so drinking a 56% proof whiskey directly from the 10 year old cask was a real treat. It definitely had a major kick! In the tasting room we were given a proper pour of their 14 year old Oban. Smooth and delicious as always, but I wanted to try the double-aged Distiller edition that you can only get at the distillery. After reaching its proper aging of 14 years, the whiskey was aged a second time in a Sherry Barrel for another 6-8 weeks. I had to pay for that sample, but it was absolutely wonderful. If I was currently employed, I would have bought a bottle, but at $90 per bottle, I will just have to enjoy my tasting sample for $4.50. This was a limited batch and it will be gone by the end of June.

With our whiskey tasting part of the day over, we checked in with StaffaTours and picked up our tickets for the follow day. We had a day trip scheduled out to Staffa and Iona. It will be a 10 hour day.

By 12:00, we were knocking on the door of our B&B. The Glenview B&B had a tightly cropped, very deceiving photo on their Hotels.com page. It did not at all reflect the reality of the place. Morvine, our host, walked us up to the room so we were able to check in early. She was very sweet. The room is an ensuite, but the sink is in the bedroom in the corner opposite that of the small bathroom/shower. We had a nice view of the elderly neighbors sunbathing. The TV is directly next to the bed, facing the opposite wall (we don’t watch tv when traveling, but this is still weird). There is no sidewalk in front of the building. You literally step out of the building into oncoming traffic and then make a mad dash across the street towards the sidewalk. There is free parking. It’s only a 15 minute walk from city center and it was $76 USD and in Oban, that is dirt cheap. The biggest negative is that the wifi only works in the “common room” which looks like a fraternity house living room that was furnished with free couches found along the road side.

We got some lunch at Oban Fish n Chips. They claim to be the world’s best and the Rick Steves Book concurs. I, however, was skeptical. To my surprise, this was THE BEST Fish n’ Chips I have had on this trip. It was worth every single calorie!

After lunch, we drove 2 miles south of town to catch the tiny Kerrara Ferry. Kerrara is an island directly across from Oban. It’s basically a massive breakwater for Oban. The ferry crossing only takes 5 minutes. On the Oban side, there is a board. You slide the board to show a solid Black square and that signals the ferry driver on Kerrara to come over and get you.

The south end of the island consists mainly of sheep. Other than that you can walk the small trails and not see anyone else other than a random hiker. We had 3 hours to hike before the ferry’s last departure. Kerrera has been described as a jewel of the Firth of Lorne. It really has a peaceful beauty about it. The trail to Gylen Castle led through meadow lowlands and beautiful bay inlets with the occasional inclines over hillside bluffs. Yellow iris were still blooming and it was lambing season. The only sounds were birds and little lambs calling for their moms, oh, and one large sheep that must have had a deviated septum because of the snorkeling noise he made while eating.

We reached Gylen Castle in about 90 minutes. It looked regal standing on the cliffs edge. We had the place all to ourselves. A perfect  blue bay with a river and a castle. It was built in 1592 as a stronghold for the MacDougall clan. It’s had a turbulent and bloody past but now sits peacefully on the bluff overlooking the loch.

We caught the 6pm ferry back, did some grocery shopping for the following day as well as a small bit of laundry to get us through the last few days. We enjoyed chicken pies for dinner on a bench overlooking the harbor. It was a nice end to a good day.