We're going to be in Oban and are thinking that one day we would rent a car so that we can drive to St. Conan's Kirk, Fincharn Castle and down to Kilmartin for the museum and church. That's driving on the A85 and then the B840 and then the A816.
We're not super comfortable driving on the left side of the road but thought this a small enough trip and maybe roads without lots of traffic. And assuming there's no problem with renting a car when over 70.
Has anyone done this drive? Any comments or suggestions?
Thanks!
Posted by
Lake District, England
12431 posts
Kilmartin Church has been closed for a long time now (maybe you have been using the very old and never updated Undiscovered Scotland website)- Spring 2019 was the closure. It is now in Community use, worship being in a modern building elsewhere in the village. Wikipedia is also incorrect, no surprise at all there.
The ancient crosses inside the Church were moved to the Kilmartin museum on closure. There is still historic stuff inside the Old Church but not anything related to the prehistoric side of Kilmartin, so of no interest to 99% of visitors.
By Fincharn Castle I assume you mean Kilchurn Castle (given how little is left of Fincharn)- that has never ending structural work ongoing by Historic Environment Scotland. All you can do is see the exterior of the Castle.
As for car rental there are (were) only 2 local companies in Oban- Hazelbank and Flit. Hazelbank have closed, and Flit have an upper age limit of 70.
However Loch Awe has a stop on the rail route to Glasgow, and all Scottish Citylink and Ember Buses to Glasgow and Edinburgh stop at Loch Awe/Lochawe. In fact they stop 3 times in the village- the first stop is outside St Conan's.
And West Coast Motors have a reasonable local bus service from Oban to Kilmartin- https://passenger-line-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/westcoastmotors/WCMO/23-timetable-20260817-64ab443d.pdf