Up on the tower

McCaig's Tower, often wrongly called McCaig's Folly, overlooks Oban and is a prominent landmark, whether from the lower parts of the town itself or from the sea. The building was designed by John Stuart McCaig based on the Coliseum in Rome, both to commemorate his own family and to provide work for unemployed stonemasons. The tower was erected between 1897 and 1902, when McCaig died and the work was halted. It had been intended to build a museum and art gallery inside, complete with tower, but this never happened.

It's now planted up with shrubs and trees and has a viewing platform on the far side which gives visitors a wonderful panorama of Oban and the surrounding islands. Snapper will be pleased to see that there are flowers in the picture - a late white rhododendron on the right!