Oh! beautiful Oban
with your lovely bay,
Your surroundings
are magnificent on a fine summer day;
There the lover of
the picturesque can behold,
As the sun goes down,
the scenery glittering like gold.
And on a calm evening,
behind the village let him climb the hill,
And as he watches
the sun go down, with delight his heart will fill
As he beholds the
sun casting a golden track across the sea,
Clothing the dark
mountains of Mull with crimson brilliancy.
And on a sunny morning
'tis delightful to saunter up the Dunstaffnage road,
Where the green trees
spread out their branches so broad;
And as you pass the
Lovers' Loan your spirits feel gay
As you see the leaflet
float lightly on the sunny pathway.
And when you reach
the little gate on the right hand,
Then turn and feast
your eyes on the scene most grand,
And there you will
see the top of Balloch-an-Righ to your right,
Until at last you
will exclaim, Oh! what a beautiful sight!
And your mind with
wonder it must fill
As you follow the
road a couple of miles further, till
You can see Bennefure
Loch on the left hand,
And the Castle of
Dunstaffnage most ancient and grand.
Then go and see the
waters of Loch Etive leaping and thundering
And flashing o'er
the reef, splashing and dundering,
Just as they did when
Ossian and Fingal watched them from the shore,
And, no doubt, they
have felt delighted by the rapids' thundering roar.
Then there's Ganevan
with its sparkling bay,
And its crescent of
silver sand glittering in the sun's bright array,
And Dunolly's quiet
shores where sea crabs abide,
And its beautiful
little pools left behind by the tide.
Then take a sail across
to Kerrera some day,
And see Gylen Castle
with its wild-strewn shore and bay,
With its gigantic
walls and towers of rocks
Shivered into ghastly
shapes by the big waves' thundering shocks.
Then wander up Glen
Crootyen, past the old village churchyard,
And as you pass, for
the dead have some regard;
For it is the road
we've all to go,
Sooner or later, both
the high and the low!
And as you return by
the side of the merry little stream,
That comes trotting
down the glen most charming to be seen,
Sometimes wimpling
along between heather banks,
And slipping coyly
away to hide itself in its merry pranks.
Then on some pleasant
evening walk up the Glen Shellach road,
Where numberless sheep
the green hillside often have trod,
And there's a little
farmhouse nestling amongst the trees,
And its hazel woods
climbing up the brae, shaking in the breeze.
And Loch Avoulyen lies
like a silver sea with its forests green,
With its fields of
rushes and headlands most enchanting to be seen,
And on the water,
like a barge anchored by some dreamland shore,
There wild fowls sit,
mirrored, by the score.
And this is beautiful
Oban, where the tourist seldom stays above a night,
A place that fills
the lover of the picturesque with delight;
And let all the people
that to Oban go
View it in its native
loveliness, and it will drive away all woe.
Oh! beautiful Oban,
with your silvery bay,
'Tis amongst your
Highland scenery I'd like to stray
During the livelong
summer-day,
And feast my eyes
on your beautiful scenery, enchanting and gay.
Author unknown
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