McCaig's Tower or McCaig's Folly is a prominent tower on Battery Hill overlooking the town of

Oban Oban ( ; meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William, Highland, Fort William. During the tourist seaso ...

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle; , ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of western Scotland. The county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975 and most of the area ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is built of Bonawe

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

taken from the quarries across Airds Bay, on

Loch Etive Loch Etive (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic, ''Loch Eite'') is a 30 Kilometre, km loch, sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It reaches the sea at Connel, 5 km north of Oban. It measures 31.6 km (19 miles) long and fr ...

, from Muckairn, with a

circumference In geometry, the circumference () is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. The circumference is the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out to a line segment. More generally, the perimeter is the curve length arou ...

of about with two-tiers of 94 lancet arches (44 on the bottom and 50 on top). It is a Grade B Listed historic monument. The structure was commissioned, at a cost of £5,000 sterling (), by the wealthy,

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

er (North of Scotland Bank), John Stuart McCaig. John Stuart McCaig was his own

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. The tower was erected between 1897 and his death, aged 78 from

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...

, on 29 June 1902 at John Square House in Oban. McCaig's intention was to provide a lasting

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

to his family, and provide work for the local

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar ...

s during the winter months. McCaig was an admirer of Roman and

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architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

, and had planned for an elaborate structure, based on the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an Ellipse, elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphi ...

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. His plans allowed for a museum and art gallery with a central tower to be incorporated. Inside the central tower he planned to commission statues of himself, his siblings and their parents. His death brought an end to construction, with only the outer walls completed. Although his will included £1,000 per year for maintenance, the will was disputed by his heirs; their appeal to the court was successful.

Legacy

The structure has been a Grade B Listed historic monument since 1971. The listing summary offers this information:

There was to be a central tower and statues in the arched openings. Dean of Guild Court retains drawings of a "stone and lime wall and granite tower, with freestone dressings" dated 1895, and of "stone and lime wall as an addition to the wall at present being erected" dated 1896, and a further addition to the height of the wall by in 1897.

The empty shell of the tower dominates the Oban skyline, and is now a public garden with magnificent views to the islands of Kerrera, Lismore and Mull. It is reached via the 144 steps of Jacob's Ladder or by car, but the car park is quite small. The first wedding ceremony conducted at McCaig's Tower took place on May 26th 1992. Keith Hirsch, originally from Dundee, Scotland, and living in Canada since 1967, married Dora Fuchihara from Toronto, Canada. The wedding was chronicled on the front page of the Oban Times that same week. Also reported in the ''Oban Times'' drinking of alcohol is prohibited in the tower under local by-laws.Oban Times Archive 2004 - Police announce drinking in public clampdown

References and notes

External links

(QuickTime required) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mccaig's Tower Folly buildings in Scotland Scottish case law Oban Tourist attractions in Argyll and Bute