New Beer Posts: Oban and Glasgow

A couple of new beer nerd posts are up over at the Hoplog Blog.

Oban, Beer and Breweries: http://hoplogblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/oban-beer-and-breweries.html

BrewDog Glasgow: http://hoplogblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/brewdog-glasgow.html

Oban, Slate and Sheep

Oban was so nice (and even sunny, though not particularly warm) we decided to hang out another day and relax rather than run to Edinburgh as originally planned.

Ah Scotland.  How can one resist a country whose national beverage is made out of this stuff?

Mmm, peat

Or a country whose mythological Celtic hero Fingal kept his huge dog Bran chained up in Oban, and Bran struggled so much that his chain wore down the earth, forming this big pillar?

Bad giant dog.  Bad.

We thought we might head out to the Isle of Mull by ferry (featuring Toberymory distillery, a Munro, and as we found out later the Isle of Mull brewery).  But we lamed out and slept in, then took a walk up a hill overlooking Oban.

We weren't sure what to do with the remaining 1/2 day in Oban, so we followed the recommendation of a lady at the tourist office and took a local bus 50 minutes south to Ellenbaich.  It was a very backroad bus ride - most of it was on single-track roads where, when one vehicle met another, one had to pull off so the other could go by.

We had no idea what Ellenbaich was.  What we ended up at, nestled under some cliffs, was a former Victorian slate quarry.  Romantic, no?  In fact it was very homey - little whitewashed cottages all made of slate & originally housing quarry workers.  Some of the former seaside quarries had filled in with sea water & formed perfect lagoons in which to moor boats.

One of the first things we saw - a brewpub!  Super exclusive local craft beer!  Unfortunately, it was still shoulder season, and it was only open for lunch and dinner, not the afternoon when we were there.  Drat.

We had about 1.5 hours to kill, and the town was miniscule, so we thought we'd try a little minor hill walking (great Scottish pastime) between the cliffs overlooking the town.

After several hundred metres of high fencing blocking our path, we finally found a gate that led up a trail beside a gorgeous seaside school.

I wish this had been MY school!

A moment later, it was just us, springy grasses and sheep sprinkled over every hill as far as the eye could see.  (Sheep are everywhere in Scotland, they range pretty freely.)  Some great scenery of the coast & grasslands, and lots of cute lambs bouncing towards their moms whenever we came within earshot.

Water trickling through peat - I'll bet that would make a great whisky

We had the bus entirely to ourselves for the trip back to Oban.  Only a couple of pounds each for a day trip and a sweet walk in the hills, that's a pretty good deal for the UK.

We discovered there was a brewpub in Oban, so (of course) we dropped in for dinner upon our return.  Oban Bay Brewery - not a bad little place, and passable beers.

Ode to Oban

I will start by telling you what I wish someone had told me: Scotland is awesome, people.  You must come visit.  We have only been here three days, and haven't gone very far, but I can tell you that Scotland is home to stunning scenery, amazingly friendly people, yummy food, and many a tasty whiskey.  It even has a bunch of craft beer!  I think it's fair to say that we will be back.

We have spent the past three nights in Oban, which is northwest of Glasgow.  I'll confess that we decided to come here because of the Oban distillery, but we have found much more: a cozy little seaside town where we have holed up and enjoyed some of Scotland's many offerings.  It gets really busy during peak tourist season, but was calm and cozy during this shoulder season.

It took us almost a whole day to get here, coming on a bus, then a ferry, then another bus, then a wait in Glasgow, then a train.

Goodbye, Belfast!

A Stena fast catamaran ferry, as viewed from our bigger, plusher Stena regular ferry that carried us across the Irish Sea

Riding the West Highland Railway in Scotland - beautiful scenery of lochs, hills and many, many sheep

We arrived late, and woke up the next morning to this view out our window.

While waiting for our distillery tour to start, we climbed up to this Colosseum looking building above town, called the tower.  Early in the 1900s, a banker/artist saw that many local masons were unemployed during the winter months.  So he commissioned this project to give them work in the slow season for several years.  It has some nice gardens and a great view of the town.

Then on to the distillery.  The Oban Distillery is one of the smallest in Scotland.  We had a great tour with a friendly, knowledgeable guide (far better than our tour of Bushmills last week).  I can't share with you any pictures of the inside, as Diageo doesn't want us letting out their secrets so we had to put our cameras away.  But this is the distillery, which has been in the centre of town since the 1700s.  It can't expand, because there is no room to do so!  They even have to age most of their whisky barrels elsewhere.

After a morning of touring, we headed for Oban Fish and Chips, which is acclaimed by a Scottish food writer as the best fish and chips in Scotland.  Chad says these are the best fish and chips he's ever had.  I was delighted to see this item on the menu: Macaroni and cheese with a side of chips.  Can I really have found a place where this is an acceptable thing to order?  Heaven!!

After a scotch/grease/carb induced nap, we spent the rest of the day wandering around town.  Oban gets a lot of rain, but we were lucky enough to have a sunny day - the wind from the north brought chilly temperatures but also (mostly) clear skies.  Come to lovely Oban!

I'm King of the World!  Or, at minimum, this windswept bluff.  It was hard to stand up straight with my jacket flapping in the wind, but it was still nothing like the winds in Northern Ireland.

Chad can be King of this castle - Dunollie Castle, home of the MacDougall clan for a thousand years or so.

We were lucky to get back to our hotel (on the right) before these clouds descended!