We started our day with a trip to St Conan's Kirk in the village of Lochawe in Argyll. St Conan's Kirk was designed and built by Walter Douglas-Campbell as a "church of ease" for his mum. Back in 1881, Walter's mum thought the trip to the nearest church was too arduous, so he decided to build her a chapel. He started the project in 1881 and completed the chapel in 1886. Walter Douglas-Campbell had considerable wealth which allowed him to spare no expense on this project. He was very interested in a variety of architectural forms that he ultimately incorporated into his project. In addition, he was a huge collector, so ultimately St Conan's Kirk houses a large number of items from all over. For these reasons, it is a very interesting place to visit.
Walter's unmarried sister, Helen, was a close collaborator on the project. Both Walter and Helen were generous benefactors in the community and made efforts to employ local craftsmen and artists.
The design includes many elements that highlight the local clans in the area. Once the basic chapel was finished, Walter and Helen's mother used it daily. When she died in 1907, Walter began to embark on a large expansion of the original project.
He worked on the expansion until his death in 1914 with Helen carrying on the work until her death in 1928. Other trustees carried on the final work until the expanded St Conan's Kirk was opened in 1933.
Today the Kirk is used for a variety of community uses including weddings, musical and dramatic events as well as a meeting space for a variety of groups.
From there, we headed to Oban which is considered "the gateway" to the outer islands of Scotland.
The Oban Distillery is physically and spiritually at "the heart of Oban." In effect, Oban grew up around the distillery which was founded in 1794.
We had a chance to learn more about the importance of whiskey in Scotland as well as have a "whiskey tasting." Whiskey accounts for 5.5 billion dollars annually in Scotland's economy. While we tend to think of whiskey as the national drink of Scotland, it wasn't always that way. In fact historically, whiskey was always the drink of the "Highlands" while claret (red wine) was the drink of the "Lowlands." This stems from the fact that the Scottish Lowlanders had a strong alliance with France who provided the Lowlanders an abundance of French red wine.
However, in 1803 when Britain went to war with France, the supply of red wine was cut off, so the Lowlanders turned to whiskey. Simultaneously, in the early 1800s many Highlanders had moved to the lowlands and brought with them the skills and expertise for distilling whiskey.
There are three ingredients in whiskey - barley, yeast, and water. However, there are many ways to process the whiskey to create many different kinds of whiskey. For example, some distilleries specialize in a "smokey-flavored" whiskey that is created with peat that is harvested from bog areas. The above "photo" is a picture of workers harvesting peat.
Our Program Leader, Linda, shared with us the correct way to "taste whiskey" and we tried three different whiskeys all produced in different parts of Scotland.
Tim and Lynn testing a flight of whiskey at the Oban Distillery.
Besides whiskey, the other major industry in Oban is fishing. We had lunch on our own and all enjoyed lunches from the catch of the day.
After our lunch, we headed to Dunstaffnage Castle. It is one of Scotland's oldest stone castles overlooking Loch Etive.
In the mid 1100s, Norway controlled Scotland's western seaboard. Somhairle, a Gaelic-Norse warlord, ruled "the kingdom of the isles." When he died, his lands were divided among sons. His grandson, Donnchadh (Duncan MacDougall), built Donnstaffnage in 1220 as a statement to his status of Lord of Lorn. The MacDougall clan controlled this area for years.
In 1469, King James III was concerned that the MacDougall Lord of the Isles wielded too much power, so he granted the Lordship of the Lorn and the captaincy of Dunstaffnage to Colin Campbell, the 1st Earl of Argyll. The Campbell attacked their MacDougall neighbors, survived a civil war in 1644 and supported the monarchy during the Jacobite risings. The Campbells still own the castle today.
The castle has a superb strategic location with panoramic views in all directions. No vessel or army could approach Dunstaffnage without being seen.
One other "claim to fame" fact about Dunstaffnage Castle concerns the Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald. Flora saved the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie after the Battle of Culloden by disguising him as her maid and rowing him over to the Isle of Syke. She was later captured and held prisoner at Dunstaffnage in 1746 before being transported to London.
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