You are here:
Oban
Oban maps
Historic maps of Oban and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Oban maps
Oban area books
Displaying 1 of 2 books about Oban and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Oban
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Oban.
Add your memory of Oban
or of a photo of Oban.
Dunstaffnage The War Years 1942-45
In 1942 aged 5 due to my father being a shipwright in the Portsmouth Dockyard he was transferred to a satellite dockyard at Dunstaffnage where we stayed as a family until the war finished and we then moved back to Pompey. Workers in the Dockyard came from Chatham, Devonport and Rosyth. The dockyard had AFD 19 which was a floating dock to repair damaged North Atlantic and Artic convoy ships. My sister reminded me of H.M.S Bluebell, repaired, next convoy Artic, sunk, one survivor only. The village was made up of about 240 prefabs (I have photos) to house the families. We lived at 13b Hervey Road and moved to 10a when my younger sister was born in 1944. The "houses" were put together by the Royal Marines which had a camp there. What a life we had, playing in the wood below the Co-op, in the bay in the summer, on the hill on the other side of the Oban-Connel Road which only had ferns then, no fir trees like nowdays.... Read more
Born in Oban
I was born in Oban and still have all my mum's family there, does anyone know of the Sloss family, Davie and Ina and their large family - Davie, Peter, Malcome, Alex, Billy, Robert, Jessie, Ina, Irene and Elizebeth?
Dunbeg School
My grandfather was the head master at Dunbeg School, he lived in the school house. Does anyone have any photos or stories? I would love to hear anything please.
I Was Born in Dunbeg (Dunstaffnage.
First day at the old village school, classmates, Mrs Gardiner, Miss Cowan.
Now live North Carolina, would love to hear from anyone who remembers.
Margaret
Argyll memories
Killiechonich
I was born at Killiechonich and lived there until I was 11. Remember walking down through the wood to Johnny and Morag McColl (a brother and sister who lived at the croft - they were from Skye). Then we would walk to Alec Fletchers for our milk - the Fletchers lived at Barnacarry. Also remember Cruachan who ran the post office - we used to go there to post letters. Eddie at the shop, where we used to get our messages. Also attended country dancing classes at Kilmore Hall.
Isobel (my sister), Anne Livingstone and myself used to attend. Remember the Christmas Parties and Fancy Dress Parties at Kilmore Hall. Attended Church and Sunday School at Kilmore church and one Christmas read the lesson there.
Jean Clark I think was our Sunday School Teacher and on one occasion I think I recall Anne Lorne Gillies taking the class. Rev Carmichael was the minister then,
he had a daughter called Nina. I... Read more
Cnocaruan
The photograph shows our house in the foreground, originally built in 1890 and has a self-catering extension added on to make the most of the spectacular Falls of Lora. The photos I am looking for are of Connel Bridge under construction. If you do or know of a web page please email cnocaruan@aol.com
Post Office Radio Station
The Maritime Radio service of the Post Office had medium wave radio stations at Wick (Caithness) and Port Patrick (Dumfries & Galloway). As the Minches were a very busy area for fishermen from Fleetwood and Milford Haven, it was decided to put a medium wave station in between and the initial site chosen was the airfield at North Connel. The first station was situated in a caravan. The staff were drafted from other stations around the UK Coast and a 24 hour watch was kept to enhance the safety of life at sea in the northwestern approaches. The staff were Donald Morrison (a Lewisman), Angus Stark, Andrew Brown, Sam Kennedy, Stan Hardman (the token Englishman), Bill Moffat and Bob Mason came later. As time went by the station was moved into more permanent quarters; a Nissan hut left by the RAF. Later, four houses were built for the staff in Connel. This meant that the staff who lived in these houses had to finish their watch at 10 p.m. -... Read more
