On our first trip abroad since 2019 Susan and I chose to go to Scotland and England for 5-weeks with the thought that October-November 2021 might be as good as it gets from a pandemic perspective. Looking back, we were right.
After 5 days in Glasgow, we moved out to Oban on the Caledonian Coast. A beautiful little village, it has been inhabited since the 1600’s, coming into prominence as a modern town upon the founding of the Oban Distillery in 1794. With a perfect horseshoe harbor, it is home to ferries, passenger vessels and an active fishing fleet. In summer it is also a popular jumping off point to many island destinations in the Inner and Outer Hebrides.
We found October to be a great time to visit as the village was not crowded and we were able to dine in the towns best restaurants and walk about easily taking in the sights. No visit is complete without a tasting tour of the Oban Distillery, which was our formal introduction to (Scotch) whisky, something we imbibed daily during our visit to the UK. Delightful and varied in its many iterations, whisky displays the same characteristics of process and terroir as many of the world’s top wine regions. What a wonderful discovery!
Rain was omnipresent during our visit to Scotland and Oban was no exception. It rained all or most of everyday, which doesn’t really keep the Scots indoors or slow things down. What is it they say? There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. We took the ferry to Craignure on the Isle of Mull where we had a lovely lunch by the fire and were treated to magnificent rainbows on the return. A drive to the Isle of Skye offered stunning scenery along the way but Skye itself was bathed in rain and fog, perhaps next time. The West Coast of Scotland is beautiful, rugged and remote and a most wonderful place to visit anytime of the year.
All images were taken with Fuji X100f with 23mm f2.0 lens in RAW format, processed in Lightroom Classic CC 11.0.1