OBAN, a seaport town and parliamentary burgh of the Western Highlands of Scotland, is situated in Argyllshire, 70∣ miles north-west of Callander by rail, and 96 from Glasgow. It lies along a deep and sheltered bay in the Firth of Lorn opposite the island of Kerr era, and its villas are scattered over the hill-slopes behind. The public buildings comprise six churches, a court-house, four banks, a high school, and a large number of hotels. There are no manufactures except the distilling of whisky; but eleven fairs for cattle, sheep, horses, &c., are annually held in the town. A considerable trade is carried on in connexion with the fisheries, particularly in herrings. Oban is an important centre of the Highland tourist traffic. The rental of the burgh increased from £1719 in 1847 to <£7160 in 1864, and upwards of £20,000 in 1882; and the population, which was only 1480 in 1831 and 2413 in 1871, reached 3991 in 1881, or, within the extended area, 4330.

A Renfrew trading company erected what was practically the first house in Oban in 1713; a custom-house was built in 1763; in 1786 the hamlet was made a Government fishing - station; in 1791 a plan was drawn up for laying out a large village; and in 1796 the Stevensons started a shipbuilding-yard, which remained in operation for about thirty years. Made a burgh of barony in 1811, Oban became a parliamentary burgh in 1832, and adopted the Lindsay Act in 1862.