Friday was wonderfully warm so exploring Oban town central was perfect. I went back at 6pm after settling myself in the room and had excellent fish and chips at Cuan Mor (Gaelic for "big harbor"). Oban was a sleepy backwater with a few fishing boats until the railway arrived in 1880. As one of the warmest sunniest parts of Scotland, it's been attracting tourists ever since. The local C19th industrialist called McCaig built Oban's answer to the Colosseum above the town: a two level arched brick semicircle that's looks like he got a deal on leftovers from all the railway bridges in Scotland. I'm going to google him at some point to see how he made his fortune: Distillery? Railway? Cloth? It's certainly a monument that wouldn't be out of place in Glasgow's Cleopatra's needle and sandstone urn-packed cemetery. I'm quite fond of Victorian funeral art, so I'm planning to visit the mausoleum when I return to Glasgow at trip's end.
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