To Oban via Loch Lomond

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Via Loch Lomond toward Oban

We woke up to absolutely pouring rain! We decided to just grab a quick continental breakfast at the HIE, I had Frosties and yogurt. I had gotten some advice on our plans for today from the desk clerk; he used to be a coach driver and was really nice and helpful. He said the drive to Oban should take about 3 hours. The plan was to drive along Loch Lomond stopping to enjoy the beauty of the Loch, but it was raining way too hard for that. We also were going to stop at Lochawe and see Kilchurn Castle. We did end up stopping at a rest area on Loch Lomond, but there was no visibility at all. The GPS couldn’t find Kilchurn so we thought we could drive to the village of Lochawe and we would see signage for the castle, but we didn’t see any! At this point we gave up and decided to just continue on towards Oban.

Dunstaffnage Castle

We stopped at Dunstaffnage Castle on the outskirts of Oban. It’s a ruin right on a little harbor. It was cool to walk around in the ramparts. There is also a little chapel a short ways off in the woods. This is really a ruin and you definitely have to use your imagination to figure out what things are. I wondered where the horses and other livestock would have been kept. The inside of the keep was really tiny.

Standing atop a rock outcrop three miles north of Oban, Dunstaffnage Castle is an impressive fortification overlooking what was once the most important junction of the sea-lanes on the west coast of Scotland. The strategic location, and the presence of such an inviting lump of rock on which to build, means that this has been a defended site for nearly 1500 years. In the 600s the Kings of Dalriada, the Kingdom of the Scots who migrated to Argyll from Ireland, built a stronghold here. It is even suggested that this was the original keeping place of the Stone of Destiny. The basic shape of Dunstaffnage is an irregular quadrangle, largely determined by the contours of the rock on which it stands. A short walk south west from the main castle buildings is the chapel, built at the end of the 1200s. More info: Dunstaffnage Castle

Oban

It was only a short ride into Oban proper from Dunstaffnage. The Regent Hotel wasn’t in the GPS either, but the address worked. This hotel doesn’t have any private parking, but there is a pay and display car park across the street. I had to circle for a bit until someone left, but finally managed to find a spot. The hotel is on the esplanade and is right across the street from the harbor. We got checked in and twice the tiny elevator came and there were housekeeping people and linens and such in it. The next time we asked them to step out so we could get our luggage up to the 4th floor. They looked like they were going to refuse, but the desk clerk came over and gave them a look. The room is fairly big, it has 3 beds and the view of the harbor is gorgeous! The bathroom is teeny tiny though, literally you can barely squeeze by the sink to use the toilet. I think they just took a corner of the room and converted it to a bathroom with a super small stand up shower.

It was early afternoon so we walked down the street to a little pub called Coasters for lunch. I had fish and chips and it was scrumptious and mom had the beef stroganoff. I got directions from the bartender to a wash and fold laundry within walking distance. So when we went back to the hotel, I gathered up my dirty laundry and headed off by myself to drop it off. Mom was too lazy to get her dirty laundry out of the car and just wanted to lie around the hotel while I went out to sight see and take some photos. Whatever - the sky was a bit dark and every now and then a drop or two of rain would fall, but for the most part it ended up to be a pretty nice afternoon. I ended up walking around the harbor area for an hour or two, taking photos and just enjoying not having to drive! I even used the internet at a little internet café. I went back to the hotel to drag mom out so she could buy some hairspray since she left hers at the hotel days ago. When we got back to the hotel, I rested for about an hour until it was time for our dinner reservations at 7pm.

This hotel is really popular with coach tours! The dining room is like a machine, getting everyone served in record time. Mom and I both had the fillet (what they call filet) and strawberry shortcake for dessert. At first we thought our server was like a drill sergeant, but it turned out she was the manager of all the servers and was really nice. I rook a couple of photos of the sunset from our room even though it wasn’t really all that colorful, but we were on the west coast so I had to at least try! Early to bed again as we’ve got to get up early for the ferry to Mull in the am! We’ve been using the mobile phone for an alarm clock as almost none of the hotels have a clock radio or any kind of alarm.

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