Wife needs to spend a few hours in Oban with the kids at the weekend. She won’t have a car, what is there to do to kill some time, anything worth visiting? I’ve only stopped there for chips before getting on a boat.

Cinema was an option but film times don’t work out as needs to be back on a train before the film finishes.

The leisure centre / pool is close to the town centre and it pretty decent. Soft play, outdoor play parks and all the usual leisure centre stuff.

Pub

Leave kids outside with a bag of crisps and a bottle of pop.

Sealife centre

With no car you could be a bit limited. McCaigs Folly for a walk, or the beach. Whisky tour might not be age appropriate.

1.Catch the ferry over to Kerrera and go to the tearoom and visit Gylen castle.

2.McCaigs Tower (its not a folly) will give you some great views out over Kerrera, Mull and Morven, if it isn’t raining.

3. Dunollie Castle

4. Catch the bus out to Dunbeg and go around Dunstaffnage castle.

How about a boat trip across the harbour to the yacht marina on Kerrera and a walk?

McCaigs folly and walk around the park is good.
Leisure centre/swimming is average public pool, but our kids still love any swim…
Beach walk, all the way round to towards to Ganavan sandss is nice.
The walk the other way is along road to sound of Kerrara – but is lovely, with some routes in around the woods / housing to the East of the coast ickle road.

All good stuff, thanks.

Kerrera looks god but ferry is a fair old trek from the town. A trip up the hill to McCaigs then a swim and climb in the leisure center seems to look good.

The distillery is close to the town centre 😀

Kerrera looks god but ferry is a fair old trek from the town.

You may be overestimating how large the distances are in Oban – everything is easily walkable.

I think the posters above were probably talking about the foot passenger ferry to the marina on Kerrera which goes from the North pier rather than the main CalMac ferry terminal.

Walk up to Pulpit Hill is also nice. Better views than McCaigs imo…
Fish & chips at Nories?

what’s ‘a few hours’ by the way?

McCaig’s Tower (it’s not a folly)

OK, I’ll bite, why not?

definition of a folly:

In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or appearing to be so extravagant that it transcends the range of garden ornaments usually associated with the class of buildings to which it belongs.

Too big for a folly? Or is it that his intention was for the tower to ‘have a purpose’ and therefore not a folly?

Interested, am technically a local so should know this!

In Oban or near’ish? – Ben Cruachan is about 20 miles away – a hollowed out mountain with a 440 MW power station inside.
shinty.com seems to be down, but you could have a look and see if Oban Camanachd have a home game

A possibility:

http://www.oceanexplorercentre.org/

Mon – Fri 10am – 4 pm. 20 min on the bus and a short walk – buses every hour (https://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/sites/default/files/405_31-10-16.pdf
and it has a cafe.

McCaig’s intention was to provide a lasting monument to his family, and provide work for the local stonemasons during the winter months. McCaig was an admirer of Roman and Greek architecture, and had planned for an elaborate structure, based on the Colosseum in Rome. 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. His death brought an end to construction with only the outer walls completed.

We’ve taken the marina ferry out of Oban for a walk around Kerrera, it’s a bit bigger than you think when you’re on foot! We got all thwe way down to Gylen Castle but it took us a hell of a while. Great walking though and we saw a family of Peregrine Falcons playing around, beautiful to watch

Charter a fast boat and nip out for a play in the Corryvreckan?

“1.Catch the ferry over to Kerrera and go to the tearoom and visit Gylen castle.”

The tea room on Kerrera is great, but is shut at this time of year. A walk on Kerrea is still fun even on a rainy day. Make sure to check the ferry times though – as they will be pretty infrequent at this time of year.