A wonderful variety of clouds formed over us and broke open again all throughout the day, bright sunlight chasing the cloud shadow across the landscape. Scotland was treating us to the next course in the feast of constantly changing light that we have enjoyed every moment of our trip.
Dawn found us secure alongside the stone walls at the western extreme of the Caledonian Canal, in Corpach. Patches of the broken overcast lit with a gentle orange as the sun rose, reflecting perfectly on the mirror-calm of the canal around our ship. Across a grassy bank to our south the morning light was also reflecting in the wider waters of Loch Linnhe, where the photographers found an old fishing boat careened on the beach – a perfect foreground to give some beautiful depth to wide angle shots of the loch.
Before long we were underway, out into the Atlantic. During our passage through Loch Linnhe, a sea loch that now led us out into the islands, we had time for a leisurely breakfast, followed by a presentation on the history of Iona by Steve and a pair of open-ended photography workshops hosted by Jim and David. Fortified with new tips for cameras and composition, we were ready for making the most of our afternoon in Oban.
Excluding Inverness, where we began our trip, Oban is the largest community on our itinerary. The city spreads out around the shores of the Firth of Lorne, protected by a small island and backed by a range of low forested hills. Today it is a center of commerce, tourism and fishing, but it is a city founded on one of the cornerstones of Scottish culture: whisky. The Oban distillery began operation in 1794 in what was then a very rural setting. Due to its success the city grew up around the whisky business.
So naturally our first order of business was a tour of the small, historic distillery, which stands just a few steps up from the harbor where Lord of the Glens was tied up. Knowledgeable guides led us through the rooms where the barley is malted, then smoked, then fermented and finally distilled in the original copper stills. The strong whisky is then decanted into used American oak bourbon casks and aged for 14 years. In the last stages of our tour we had a chance to sample undiluted cask-strength whisky (about 108-proof!) right out of one of these barrels, followed by a tasting of the bottled 86-proof 14-year-old final product. It was quite a treat for those of us who fancy a dram of fine single malt whisky.
After our visit to the Oban distillery some of us spent an hour strolling through town with David, practicing some of the photo tips from earlier in the day and learning some new ones for working in urban environments. By this time the sun was shining brightly, giving us an opportunity to work with variety of challenging and stimulating moods of light along the waterfront.
And as the afternoon drew to a close many of us joined Konia for a short history presentation and a pleasant walk up the hill behind town to visit the rather strange but nonetheless attractive edifice known as MacCaig’s folly. Bearing a general resemblance to Rome’s famous Coliseum, if you squint a bit, it was commissioned by a local businessman but never completed. After some years of neglect the city took over the property and today it contains a small, beautiful garden and offered a sweeping view out over the city and the harbor beyond as the sun slowly set and the gentle light of evening settled around us.
