"McCaig's Tower is a prominent tower on the hillside (called Battery Hill) overlooking Oban in Argyll, Scotland. It is built of Bonawe granite taken from the quarries across Airds Bay, on Loch Etive, from Muckairn, with a circumference of about 200 metres with two-tiers of 94 lancet arches (44 on the bottom and 50 on top).
The structure was commissioned, at a cost of £5,000 sterling (£500,000 at 2006 prices using GDP deflator), by the wealthy, philanthropic banker (North of Scotland Bank), John Stuart McCaig.
John Stuart McCaig was his own architect. The tower was erected between 1897 and his death, aged 78 from Angina Pectoris, on 29 June 1902 at John Square House, Oban, Argyll.
McCaig's intention was to provide a lasting monument to his family, and provide work for the local stonemasons during the winter months. McCaig was an admirer of Roman and Greek architecture, and had planned for an elaborate structure, based on the Colosseum in Rome. 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.
Legacy
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. The first marriage to be conducted in McCaig's Tower was between Oban High School teachers Jim Maxwell and Margaret Milligan and was reported in the Oban Times published 11 July 2003. Also reported in the Oban Times drinking of alcohol is prohibited in the tower under local by-laws."
--Wikipedia (
visit link)
"John Stuart McCaig, begun 1897. Circular screen comprised of continuous pointed-arch arcading in 2 tiers over partially exposed foundation tier, built onto rock. Cruachan granite, bull-faced squared and snecked to exterior, hammer dressed random rubble to interior. Round-arched main entrance with keystone in crenellated raised section to E, 2 pointed windows over arch with commemorative plaque between. Continuous band course cill to lower arches, continuous moulded string course cill and eaves detail above. Natural rock floor to interior.
Notes
Oban's most prominent and famous landmark. Unique style, incorporating plan of Roman arenas with Gothic arches. Planned by McCaig ("art critic, philosophical essayist, and banker") as a monument to his family. 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 15 feet in 1897."
--Historic Scotland (
visit link)