Before we left on our sightseeing tour today, we had to find some way of publishing yesterdays blog which Mick had prepared, as we believed, erroneously as it turned out, that our B & B didn't have WiFi.
Mick went into a pub in town and asked them if they had free WiFi and on finding out that they did, we bought two Lattes and did the necessary publishing.
Before leaving Oban, we drove to the top of Battery Hill on which had been built McCaig's Tower, a prominent circular wall on the hillside overlooking Oban. It is built of Bonawe granite taken from the quarries at Muckairn which is across Airds Bay, on Loch Etive.. The wall has a circumference of about 200 metres with two-tiers of 94 arches (44 on the bottom and 50 on top).
It is a very impressive structure whether viewed from down in the town or up on the hill. and the views of Oban from up there were superb however Lyn and Mick thought that the structure appeared to be only half finished. This was in fact the case.
The guy that paid for it to be built was a wealthy philanthropic banker named John Stuart McCaig whose intention was to provide a lasting monument to his family, and provide work for the local stonemasons during the winter months.
His plans allowed for a museum and art gallery with a central tower to be incorporated. Inside the central tower he planned to commission statues of himself, his siblings and their parents. Unfortunately he died before it was completed.
Having published the blog and checked out the tower, we headed south down the A816 to checkout a few of the places of interest Mick had listed.
The forecast for today was the same as for the last few days, cloudy with showers and occasional sunshine. This turned out to be very accurate.
As we headed south, the scenery was again spectacular and the differing weather conditions added to the spectacle with the low cloud setting off the mountains as the sun sometimes shone through.
We drove for about an hour stopping at a few places before arriving at Kilmartin.
Kilmartin is a small village in Argyll and Bute, western Scotlnad. It is best known as the centre of Kilmartin Glen, which is an area with one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric monuments and historical sites in Scotland. It contains over 350 monuments within a 10klm radius.
Of course, we didn't have time to see them all as the weather could change by the minute and walking off into the countryside could end up with us getting a soaking. Mind you this didn' t stop the locals disappearing off through the hedges.
We decided to check out the parish church and churchyard which has an important collection of early Christian and medieval carved stones, known as the Kilmartin Stones. Some are displayed within the church itself, others have been gathered together in a fabulous stone building within the graveyard, others still remain within the graveyard itself.
There were also several cairns around the town some of which were visible from a vantage point overlooking the Kilmartin Glen.
In modern times, cairns are often erected as landmarks, a use they have had since ancient times. Since prehistory (before we had written records) they have also been built as a burial vault or a receptacle for sacred relics, or used for defensive, hunting, ceremonial, astronomical and other purposes. How cool is that?
We then had a cup of tea at the museum restaurant before checking out the gift shop and heading back to Oban through quite a bit of rain.
After a nice meal in town we returned to our B & B to be met by our landlady who was keen to know what we had been up to. It turns out she was looking after the place for her mother who was on holiday. Her mother is a keen dog owner who owns Gordon Setters and has won many awards.
During the conversation Mick noticed that she had a computer set up and told her that they should offer free WiFi as standard as the dozens of other B & B's do in the area. She said that they do and that she had forgotten to tell us and give us the WiFi key! Terrific.
Mick went into a pub in town and asked them if they had free WiFi and on finding out that they did, we bought two Lattes and did the necessary publishing.
Before leaving Oban, we drove to the top of Battery Hill on which had been built McCaig's Tower, a prominent circular wall on the hillside overlooking Oban. It is built of Bonawe granite taken from the quarries at Muckairn which is across Airds Bay, on Loch Etive.. The wall has a circumference of about 200 metres with two-tiers of 94 arches (44 on the bottom and 50 on top).
It is a very impressive structure whether viewed from down in the town or up on the hill. and the views of Oban from up there were superb however Lyn and Mick thought that the structure appeared to be only half finished. This was in fact the case.
The guy that paid for it to be built was a wealthy philanthropic banker named John Stuart McCaig whose intention was to provide a lasting monument to his family, and provide work for the local stonemasons during the winter months.
His plans allowed for a museum and art gallery with a central tower to be incorporated. Inside the central tower he planned to commission statues of himself, his siblings and their parents. Unfortunately he died before it was completed.
Having published the blog and checked out the tower, we headed south down the A816 to checkout a few of the places of interest Mick had listed.
The forecast for today was the same as for the last few days, cloudy with showers and occasional sunshine. This turned out to be very accurate.
As we headed south, the scenery was again spectacular and the differing weather conditions added to the spectacle with the low cloud setting off the mountains as the sun sometimes shone through.
We drove for about an hour stopping at a few places before arriving at Kilmartin.
Kilmartin is a small village in Argyll and Bute, western Scotlnad. It is best known as the centre of Kilmartin Glen, which is an area with one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric monuments and historical sites in Scotland. It contains over 350 monuments within a 10klm radius.
Of course, we didn't have time to see them all as the weather could change by the minute and walking off into the countryside could end up with us getting a soaking. Mind you this didn' t stop the locals disappearing off through the hedges.
We decided to check out the parish church and churchyard which has an important collection of early Christian and medieval carved stones, known as the Kilmartin Stones. Some are displayed within the church itself, others have been gathered together in a fabulous stone building within the graveyard, others still remain within the graveyard itself.
There were also several cairns around the town some of which were visible from a vantage point overlooking the Kilmartin Glen.
In modern times, cairns are often erected as landmarks, a use they have had since ancient times. Since prehistory (before we had written records) they have also been built as a burial vault or a receptacle for sacred relics, or used for defensive, hunting, ceremonial, astronomical and other purposes. How cool is that?
We then had a cup of tea at the museum restaurant before checking out the gift shop and heading back to Oban through quite a bit of rain.
After a nice meal in town we returned to our B & B to be met by our landlady who was keen to know what we had been up to. It turns out she was looking after the place for her mother who was on holiday. Her mother is a keen dog owner who owns Gordon Setters and has won many awards.
During the conversation Mick noticed that she had a computer set up and told her that they should offer free WiFi as standard as the dozens of other B & B's do in the area. She said that they do and that she had forgotten to tell us and give us the WiFi key! Terrific.
McCaig's Tower on Battery Hill, Oban
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