Sea Kayak Oban

John Stuart McCaig (1823-1902), a local banker, was aiming for something like the Colosseum in Rome. At his death only the granite circular shell was complete, resembling a vast salad-drainer with its lancet windows, and dominating the view for miles around. Inside is simply a public garden and picnic spot where the pipe band sometimes plays, and the museum, art gallery and heroic statues of himself and family never happened. You can approach via "Jacob's Ladder", the steps from the Esplanade.

was once as distinctive and hollow a monument on the skyline as McCaig's Tower, but has crumbled behind the engulfing jungle. It was built from 1881 as a spa hotel, but they grossly underestimated the cost, and it was abandoned when almost complete. The shareholders might have persevered if they foresaw what people pay nowadays to be assaulted with green mud.

No, Tolstoy never visited Oban, though the works of Sir Walter Scott were among his influences. This museum describes Oban's role in wartime, and its blossoming in peacetime through tourism.

Scottish Episcopal (Anglican) Cathedral hidden among the shops. Building started in 1863 and continued in several phases but lack of funds resulted in the present odd layout, with steel girders propping up unfinished work.

The Roman Catholic Cathedral was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (who designed the iconic red telephone box) and built in Neo-Gothic style between 1932 and 1959. In medieval times the area's senior church was St Moluag's on the Isle of Lismore, nowadays a Church of Scotland parish church. The RC Diocese of Argyll and The Isles was re-established in 1878 but bishop and congregation were in makeshift premises, including a tin hut, until St Columba's was completed.

This 15th-century castle is a crumbling stump; its predecessors over 1000 years were repeatedly destroyed. You can clamber up the stairs within. In the grounds are pleasant gardens (dogs welcome) and a small museum.