Oban – should I move there?

We have a plan to move north. We’ve considered lots of places, but at this time Oban seems to tick all the right boxes. I’m on holiday there at this very moment, so I’ve been trying to do pluses and minuses. So far I have:

Minuses – midges maybe
I haven’t found a good Thai restaraunt yet

Pluses – everything else

What have I not considered?

Minus – It seemed crazy busy when we were there a couple of summers ago.

The cold and the dark. It’s also something like 9 times wetter there than St Andrews which is on a similar latitude.

Such is the price of winter in Scotland. If you don’t already live here you’ll probably find it’s a price worth paying. Admittedly, I live on the east coast where it’s nowhere near as wet.

Rain. I love the Oban area; my parents lived in Connel for a while and it has so much to offer. But it is wet. Rainfall level differences between where I am now (nairnshire) and there are significant.

It’s simultaneously got access to amazing places (like the islands) and a bit of a faff to get to. It’s not rural as such, just a little out of the way. Oban itself is obviously pretty well specced for a smallish town, but need anything more and it’s basically Glasgow – airport, a hospital with more than the basics, shops etc.

Negatives – Oban itself can get a bit overrun with tourists in the peak season.

You’ll need a boat if some description!

Yeah, living west would get to me I think, with increased rain. No students though v St Andrews 😀

As munrobiker says, winter on the west is wet. And spring. Summer and autumn.

I like Oban, it’s got everything you need, some great access out west to islands, and yet also into hills and mountains all round.

@dovebiker probably has a ‘local’ view.

As above, it does get a bit busy in Summer, but you only really notice it when having to go through the town itself.

As this is (nominally at least) a mountain biking forum, have you considered where you’d ride a MTB? There’s not really much in the immediate area.

Great access to the islands of course and if you don’t own a boat then you’d likely want to change that. Same for sea kayaks.

It’s a lovely area and a much milder climate than we get in Aviemore. I notice it especially in Spring where it arrives much earlier and the variety of plants seems greater.

At least it’s not Fort William 🙂

We sailed into Oban for the night last October.

It was really lovely but it had been pissing down for a week in that area (while further south was baking hot 😠) and the town was literally cut off from everywhere unless you had a boat.

The fish restaurant on the harbour side was fantastic.

I can see the attraction.

At least it’s not Fort William

True.

If the man from Aviemore says it gets busy it must get busy

“At least it’s not Fort William 🙂” Hey Oban is prettier than An Gearasdan *but inferior in every other way .

* I did that so Effie can’t find us.

Went to school at Oban high back in the mid 80’s as I lived in dalavich, there are 4 distinct seasons : cold and wet : wet : wet and dry : not wet or dry but merely confusing

As above,  rain. 2.3m a year. More than double Glasgow rainfall.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ioanna-Akoumianaki/publication/362964192/figure/fig2/AS:11431281081121241@1661534164087/Rainfall-amount-annual-average-distribution-in-Scotland-1981-2010.jpg

I pass through it for a few days most years, so not exactly an expert but it has great access to the islands and western Scotland in general. It’s a long way from anywhere though. And it does get busy at the weekends with day trippers and the usual holiday crowds. It has a fairly typical small Scottish town approach to nightlife, lots of pints of Tennants in a cramped pub followed by chips or a kebab.

I live in Glencoe, an hour from Oban and 20 minutes from Fort William.  Much prefer Oban for a day trip.

Pro’s
Sizeable town.
Big high school.
Good mix of local/touristy stuff.
Selection of supermarkets.
Great access to the islands.
Beautiful area – lots to do if you’re into walking/paddling/exploring.
Good transport links to Glasgow.
Decent leisure facilities – Atlantis, decent (wee) cinema.

Con’s
Very wet.  Don’t know if you’d picked that up yet!
Lack of mtb – my mates who live just outside Oban head up this way for biking.
Long winter but that’s the same anywhere round here.

Good luck!

It’s all been said above but i’d say go in november, see what you think on a rainy afternoon. And also go in the tourist season, easter onwards the visitor taps open

Ive lived in inverness, Leith and Fort William. They are all fantastic places in their own way, but by christ the rain on the west coast

There’s not much in the way of mountain biking. There’s some stuff in glencruitten woods, but it’s not great. Quite a swampy place. I’m there a lot with work, and generally just stick to quiet roads on the bike now.

@dander No Janettas’ either?

If there was a threat about over rated naff ice cream Janettas would win hands down

The Fusaro Luvian shop on Market st miles better

A glass artist friend of ours did the glass screening in the town centre.

I went on holiday to Oban last summer, wouldn’t go there on holiday again soon. Would happily move there.

No advice though, I just had a jolly time, but weirdly unaccommodating to tourists, couldn’t get a drink and a cake in the afternoon, especially with kids, D&G is much better for that. But it’s a lovely place, wouldn’t tire of the view from McCaigs Tower in several lifetimes. If I had cake at home all would be well.

Gelatoburger is fantastic.

It might be wet, midgy and busy during the summer with no real MTB in the area but all that would be trumped for me by two simple words. Seafood Hut.

it has great access to the islands and western Scotland in general

I’d disagree with the second part of this. Oban is rather out on a limb and it’s a bit of a trek getting to other places from there.

Others have pointed out that the local off road riding isn’t great but neither is the road riding. Very few quiet roads to choose from.

I’ve never been particularly taken with Oban , and after 12 years in the wet and windy of Shetland I’m loving the East coast of Scotland’s weather; scenery and riding and walking is good, minimal midgie hassle too. For me being more accessible to transport and health care is great .

To the OP. Lots of folks mentioning the rain and rightly so. However, it’s all relative and whether or not it will be an issue depends on what you’re used to and your preferences. Where are you now and what’s the rain like there? How do you feel about whole weeks of grey drizzle? If you’re used to those things or they don’t trouble you then crack on. If you’re currently somewhere much drier or the rain really gets to you (and it can!) then I’d think seriously about whether Oban is for you.

We moved from Glasgow to the Highlands 16 years ago. I think that if my job had taken me to Oban (and I wasn’t a climber!) I could have been happy there but having the choice of anywhere (pretty much) Oban wasn’t even a consideration. For me, it wasn’t so much the weather as the accessibility. The immediate area of Oban is nice but to get further afield will involve a lot of time on not very good roads. There’s less than 30 mins in it going from Oban to Ullapool compared to Edinburgh to Ullapool.

A few people have mentioned the ‘access to the islands’ thing. Yes, Oban is a bit of a ferry hub, but I wonder how much one would make use of that? It’s probably not the sort of thing I’d do every weekend. The islands certainly aren’t ‘on your doorstep’ even in Oban. I think things to do from your doorstep are really important although it doesn’t seem to bother others as much.

Edit: if you’re a sea kayaker, ignore the above and move to Oban.

I’d disagree with the second part of this. Oban is rather out on a limb and it’s a bit of a trek getting to other places from there.

I was thinking that. It’s a dead end?!

I was thinking that. It’s a dead end?!

It’s not a dead end but it is sort of out on its own.

Fair point, it is a bit out on a limb but still only 45 minutes to Glencoe or back to Tyndrum. Very much depends what the OP wants from a place to live, it wouldn’t be for me but a good friend recently moved to North Connel and loves it.

It’s not a dead end but it is sort of out on its own

It is. But I’d describe it as a very beautifully guilded cage. Unless you have a one sport fixation (and it’s not water based) you would struggle to run out of things to do without leaving cage. I actually really enjoyed the road riding there though admittedly the loops you can put together are typically quite long.

Where is the OP moving from to get to Oban? If moving from Glasgow the weather may not be as much of a shock as moving from London.

Nearly moved there for a job a long while back but otherwise it wouldn’t be that high on my list. The job was a sort of “get me out of here” situation and it would have been an interesting change from where we were but we ended up going to Japan instead which was a whole other ball of rice.

When I think about random places to live in Scotland it’s never come up as a target for all the reasons others have covered. I think Peebles is probably top of the wish list currently.

Peebles

See, whilst I appreciate the mountain biking is great and if you are that one trick pony who would enjoy that, that would really appeal; I couldn’t do that.

Oban is intrinsically linked to the sea and if that doesn’t give you a buzz, the downsides of the place will be less easily forgiven.

To use a cheesy quote from a cheesy film….

We all come from the sea, but we are not all of the sea. Those of us who are, we children of the tides, must return to it again and again, until the day we don’t come back leaving only that which was touched along the way

If you’re going to move to the West Highlands why move to somewhere at the bottom, go for somewhere in the middle? Further north gives better access to hills and biking. If you are going to move to the Highlands, why live in a town? A rural location a few miles outside town would be my choice, but each to their own.

I live near Spean Bridge which works really well…weather comes from east or west, and if wet here it is easy to nip up the Laggan road to the dry side of the country. You need a strategy to avoid the rain. To repeat the other downsides – tourism, long dark winters, rain, Oban has rush hour congestion, and not much local mtbing or road cycling.

Oban is literally gateway to one of the best playgrounds around imo, the Hebridean isles. We’ve kept a boat in Oban bay for a few seasons now (waiting list to buy it was a few seasons long too!). Once you’re 100m off the beach Midges stop existing and are not a thing.

From Oban bay – 1.5hours hours West has you to Loch Spelve for the best Mussels you’ve ever had and last season were £2.50 per 2kg straight from the farm. An hour south has you in Puildobhran where you can walk over the hill the TnT – amazing food and cracking wee bar. A bit further south and you’re in Easdale for one of the best hidden seafood pubs around. 4 hours NW has you in Tobermory for the Mishnish or a little but further has Loch Sunart; Ardnamuchan distillery worth a visit and has a pretty anchorage or anywhere else into the multitude of remote anchorages.

If it’s beaches you’re after, along the Ross of Mull there are a multitude; 6 hours has you at Iona and you’ve passed tens of white sandy beaches which are mostly impossible to reach by land. A similar distance south has Collonsay & Oronsay and their amazing distillery and beaches. If you want to feel properly remote the West Loch Tarbert on Jura is another world. Like your whiskies? Islay is just about doable over a weekend (although best for a 3 day weekend)

All that and a thousand other options are available for the weekend away. Stretch it out to a fortnight holiday and you have more anchorage & Island options than you could dream of visiting in a lifetime. There are so many amazing wee pubs, restaurants, craft shops and galleries around the isles

For the cost of a new pair of Ebikes, you’d get a secondhand sailing boat to unlock all the above – it’s genuinely sublime and a world apart from the Slacks, blazer & brass button image it often is portrayed as.

Living on Mull. we make frequent visits to Oban for our big monthly shop, seeing dentists, opticians etc but it’s not a place I’m sure I’d want to live, but there are lots of nice places nearby that have a far nicer west coast vibe. Both Oban and Fort William have their share of social deprivation, drug abuse and crime – whereas we have almost zero crime here, you can leave your car and house unlocked. OK, the weather can be a bit of a downer – January and February this year have been very wet, but you get the occasional day of glorious, clear weather  that shows the west coast in all it’s glory. If you enjoy sailing, kayaking or other water sports the west coast can’t be beaten – there’s an other-worldliness of being out in a kayak on a summer evening with otters, dolphins and porpoises. In terms of midges, in the right place they’re almost non-existent – near the sea, slightly elevated and a slight breeze – been here 3 years and barely been bitten. As you’re in Oban, I’d take the chance to explore the area a little widely. There’s also a term used here “blow-ins” as it’s know that as many as 40% of incomers don’t get beyond their 3rd winter here – you do need a degree more resilience and resourcefulness to cope with the weather and the fact that everything isn’t on your doorstep, but the upsides easily outweigh this.
I’ve also lived in Moray, on Speyside  – quite a rural area and frankly found the country folk there a bit off to ‘incomers’. Great access to the Cairngorms except when you get 2m of snow blocking the road.

When I think about random places to live in Scotland it’s never come up as a target for all the reasons others have covered. I think Peebles is probably top of the wish list currently

Really? I mean I live here and there are places I would rather live. It’s fine but it’s not that special.

Spent 3 years working in and out of Oban. I liked it but as I arrived by boat out main concerns where supermarket and pub. Definitely a boaty place for me. Winter sucks big time.

Gosh it must be wet if it get’s double the average Manchester gets.

I’m assuming you are a MTBer, as you are posting on here (I know, right?) but there’s not a lot round there to ride. I’ve had a look, as I quite like the place and entertained a fancy of moving out there from Glasgow, but it is quite isolated.

I’ve only been in Spring and Summer, but I imagine in winter, it might get a bit oppressive round there, with 1 road in, 1 road out, and if its wetter than Glasgow, then that really is quite something.

Wetter than Glasgow? It is around twice wet.   I live near Glasgow. I would not move to anywhere wetter.  This winter I have been out on my bike a fair amount. Rarely got soaked as I could choose dry days or dry windows on wet days. I suspect I would have been out a lot less in Oban.

https://en.climate-data.org/europe/united-kingdom/scotland/glasgow-20/

https://en.climate-data.org/europe/united-kingdom/scotland/oban-7341/

Of course nothing stops you riding in the rain. I just prefer not to. There is a reason most people go to sunny dry places for holidays.