On our way up to Oban, we took the long way through Glasgow and past several different castles and lochs. First, we stopped at Loch Lomond. Actually, we stopped at the same Loch Lomond stop that we stopped at on the way back from Camp Hellhole. It brought back so many not so pleasant memories, but it was nice to see Loch Lomond again sans 4 bus loads of people. In fact, my parents and I were the only people out on the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond (this was probably due to the fact that it was pouring at this point).
Here's Loch Lomond. As you can see, it was kind of hazy and rainy at the time.
After visiting Loch Lomond, we got back on the road toward Oban (I would just like to add that my Dad's driving is actually really good over here. He hasn't messed up the whole lane thing at all yet. I'm very impressed considering how much driving around we had done this week). The next town that we came to was Inveraray which sits on Loch Fynn. This town was adorable. All of the buildings were white washed and the entire town sat on this little piece of land that jutted out into the loch.
Here is Inveraray. You can see some pretty mean looking clouds hanging over the town.
This is a picture from Inveraray looking out at Loch Fynn. (Honestly, I just liked the pictured, which is why I added it in here.)
Before leaving Inveraray (where Neil Munro was born. Evidently he is Scottish writer, but I had no idea who he was. I had to look it up, but every town sign said "the birthplace of Neil Munro" on it) we saw Inveraray Castle.
This castle was the home of the Duke of Argyll back in the day.
Then, we continued on our drive to Oban. The next stop we came to was Kilchurn Castle. This castle, like Urquhart and St. Andrews, was in ruins. It sits out on Loch Awe on it's own little island.
Here is Kilchurn Castle!
Next, we made our way up to Oban. Before heading into town, we stopped at Dunstaffnage (try saying that 3 times fast) Castle. This one sits on the Firth of Lorne a little ways outside of Oban. It also is partially in ruins, but it still looked really cool. Plus, by this point, the rain had stopped.
Here is Dunstaffnage Castle.
After our photo-op at Dunstaffnage Castle, we made our way into the town of Oban. Oban (which is a Gaelic (Scottish traditional, tribal sort of language) for The Little Bay) is a small town that sits of the Firth of Lorne, which heads out to sea. Most people visit it because it has ferries that run to the various Isles (like Mull and Iona) around the Western Coast of Scotland. And most importantly, it may be the cutest town ever. All of the buildings are painted fun colors, the flowers were blooming and the people are all really nice.
The first thing we did when we got into town, was make our way up the tiny winding roads to the top of a hill that over looks Oban. Up at the top of this hill is McCaig's Tower. It's this coliseum type monument that overlooks the Loch of Lorne and central Oban.
Here's McCaig's Tower.
Here is the view of Oban from the tower.
These are some houses by the tower. All of the flowers were blooming and everything just looked really pretty.
Once we finished taking pictures, we headed down the hill to central Oban. We walked around by the water and looked at the shops and the views.
Here's a view of Oban!
Then, we headed back to Edinburgh. Today was a great day. We saw lots of fun things and I really liked Oban. I plan on visiting Oban again in the near future when I'll have more time to throughly explore the city. Tomorrow we're heading down south of Edinburgh to visit some famous abbeys and see some other little towns. It should be a lot of fun!
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