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With Verne at Oban,Scotland

From: <ian.thompson~at~ges.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 21:31:55 -0000 (GMT)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

On Thursday 17th July 1879 Jules Verne and his companions disembarked from
the paddle steamer "Chevalier" and took rooms and dined à la carte in the
Caledonian Hotel. This hotel at the junction of Argyll Street and the
seafront was a handsome high quality five storey hotel, described in
Murray's Guide to Scotland, which Verne was familiar with, as being "very
good". The choice of hotel was logical since it was only 100 metres from
the quai where Verne intended to take the steamer to Iona and Staffa early
the following morning.
Today's visitor to Oban would immediately notice the Caledonian Hotel on
the seafront...it is the largest and highest rated hotel overlooking the
harbour and Oban Bay....and might reasonably assume that this was where
Verne and his friends spent the nights of the 17th and 18th July. Sadly
this is not the case. The present Caledonian Hotel was not completed until
1882, three years after Verne's visit, and being adjacent to the
newly-arrived railway was appropriately named the Station Hotel. This name
survived until the 1960s when with the demise of the original Caledonian
Hotel (now a residential building with commerce at street level) the
Station Hotel was able to appropriate the more romantic name of
"Caledonian".
The Verne pilgrim can easily locate Verne's 1879 hotel..the building
itself is intact...but sadly can no longer spend the night there. The
adjacent Oban whisky distillery, founded in 1794, might offer some
compensation!
Ian Thompson.
Received on Mon 05 Nov 2007 - 23:32:14 IST

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