Oban Distillery
Argyll & Bute | Oban | Distillery | ★★★ [Oban Distillery] Half past nine on a July morning, the doors open and tourists pour in! With a central location in one of the Highlands' most popular towns, Oban Distillery is always going to have a captive audience. Founded in 1794, this is one of Scotland's oldest and smallest distilleries - in fact even older than Oban itself, with the town growing up around the distillery. Why small? Production buildings have always been hemmed in by cliffs and adjacent houses, preventing expansion. Instead - so they say - Oban Distillery focuses on quality rather than quantity, producing a rich, mostly lightly-peated malt which falls somewhere between the typical Highland and Island flavours. Tours of the production areas are a bit brief but deal with the crowds quite well. Numbers are limited so you still get a good chance to see what's going on, and regular slots continue late into the evening during summer to squeeze in as many p