Oban—ferry cancellation

You aren't the only one thinking that. Today both services are on Yellow warning due to a south easterly, but tomorrow is a stronger south westerly.
My guess is that the Craignure ferry should run tomorrow, but the Iona one could be a bit dodgy.

If the Craignure ferry runs, maybe take the service bus in the other direction to Tobermory, then the lunchtime bus #494 down to Calgary Beach for 20 minutes and back (and see if you can spot the work on the brand new WW1/WW2 war memorial being built a century late at the Dervaig scenic look out!).

Have you been to Loch Awe (train or bus) for St Conan's Kirk, or to Kilmartin (means part repeating today, but can be done by bus)?

Or I assume you have seen the thread of last week about the isle of Lismore, maybe pop over on the wee ferry from Lismore, and see if you can book a tour at short notice- https://www.explorelismore.co.uk/our-tours-services
If no tour is available take the car over to Lismore (if allowed to do that) and self explore (assuming that ferry is running).

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/scotland/new-archeological-find-in-scotland-uncovers-6th-century-christian-monastery

https://www.lismoregaelicheritagecentre.org/

When our three island boat tour was cancelled due to rough seas we went to Dunollie Castle. It's about a mile or so walk from the center of Oban and was a pleasant surprise. Very interesting history even though the architecture is much more modern than your average castle.

Thanks Stuart and Julie. The Lismore Heritage center sounds interesting but will the ferry run? And it looks like a long walk to the center from the ferry. Mom is interested in more castles, but she has this idea of seeing a furnished one. She claims she saw one in a video. We’d have to uber to Dunollie and I’m also looking at Dunstaffnage. I will look more at Kilmartin.

Should I be able to tell if the Mull/iona ferry is cancelled, yet?

We did go to Kintyre today and found the cemetery. That was real interesting. The Carradale heritage center is closed so that was disappointing. But the scenery was lovely in spite of sporadic rain and fog

Yes, Lismore you would need the island Taxi (the same people as the tour).

If you want a furnished castle Inveraray would have been your best bet- but they are only open from Thursday to Monday- that would have been the 1045 Glasgow bound bus #976, arrive 1200, coming back at 1638- another £2 bus.

The Craignure ferry is now on yellow warning of possible disruption, but currently the Iona and Lismore ferries are on green.

But if you can get over to Mull your next best bet of a furnished castle is Duart (you will need a taxi from Craignure) for the 3 1/2 mile journey- https://duartcastle.com/

https://www.tobermory.co.uk/information/travel-2/taxis/

Even if it was just you I would not usually suggest walking there, they used to have a chargeable shuttle bus from the ferry but that ended during the pandemic. Torosay Castle was another good option, by train (Mull Rail) from Craignure, but it is currently closed to the public.

For the purists on the forum Duart was a ruin, which was restored just before WW1, but I think a good restoration, as authentic as reasonably possible to also be a 20th century home.

I'm constantly surprised how few people on the forum seem to get to Duart.

Duart sounds like it’d work. West Coast Tours looks like they have a package, but then there’s no dates available. Maybe I will run over to their office at 8:30 am tomorrow.

We did have transportation all set for Iona. I just don’t think it’d be fun in driving rain. (Having just spent a fairly miserable day on Inishmore when we were in Ireland.

I have a fond memory of Duart Castle. We stopped there when our daughters were young girls after our arrival on Mull. As we were walking around inside the castle a very nice woman approached our little family and said she had seen us on the ferry and was impressed with how well behaved our girls were. She told us her name was Lady Mary Maclean and that she lived in the residence quarters there. The castle has been part of the Maclean clan for hundreds of years. That’s an experience I will never forget.

Thank you, everyone, for your kind responses. Currently, it’s beautiful, warm and partly sunny. But, the ferries I need are not running. So, after another nice chat with the gal in the West Coast Office, we are on a bus to Kilmartin. 4GBP round per person. Hard to beat! Fingers crossed for a pleasant day.