Dunbeg

The marina table

The Wide Mouthed Frog sits in the grounds of Dunstaffnage Marina, which means you eat your fish and chips looking out at boat masts, a 13th-century castle on a rock, and open water running to Mull and Lismore with the Morvern hills behind them. It is the only pub and restaurant in Dunbeg, so it carries the village on its own. The kitchen leans on local seafood — mussels, scampi, haddock, scallops, prawns, a prawn Marie Rose and avocado salad — alongside haggis, mushroom soup and chicken tenders for anyone who didn't come for the shellfish. The Marina View Cafe opens at ten, restaurant lunches from noon, dinner from six. There's an outdoor deck for the days that allow it, and dogs are welcome, particularly out there.

That's more or less the extent of eating and drinking in Dunbeg itself. There's no butcher, no deli, no bakery. For proper provisions you drive the two and a half miles into Oban, which takes under ten minutes and puts you in a working ferry town with shops, seafood and a distillery founded in 1794.

The circular and the castle

The rest of Dunbeg is the walk. The circular from Ganavan Sands to Dunstaffnage Castle and back is about 4.8 miles and takes a couple of hours, and it is not a manicured one — coastal path with steps and a metal kissing gate, boggy in places, faint through the woods near the castle, with some steep up-and-down. You pass Dunstaffnage Chapel, a ruined MacDougall chapel decorated with dog-tooth carving, and the castle sits on its outcrop above the firth. The return runs through Dunbeg along Lorn Road and into the modern housing on a surfaced cycle path. Oystercatchers, black guillemots, rabbits and the occasional fox are on the list of things you might see.

The castle is the reason people slow down here. Duncan MacDougall built it before 1240; Robert the Bruce besieged and took it in 1308 after the Battle of the Pass of Brander, then installed a constable rather than knocking it down. In late 1746 Flora MacDonald was held here for a few days after helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape dressed as her maid. Historic Environment Scotland calls it a "brute mass of masonry," which is fair.

The Captain's three nights

There is also a hereditary Captain of Dunstaffnage, held by the Campbells since the 15th century. The current holder, Michael Campbell, has to spend three nights a year in the castle to keep the title, which is otherwise a sinecure with no military duty attached.

Marine science and sheltered water

Dunbeg does one other thing you might not expect. It is home to the Scottish Association for Marine Science, which moved here from Millport in 1967, and the free SAMS Ocean Explorer Centre where families can get a look at the marine science. Next door, Ganavan Sands is a sandy beach with sheltered water that people swim in.

The flying-boat gate

The cycleway back to Oban runs past a gate with a flying boat painted on it, marking the Catalinas and Sunderlands that were maintained here during the war and then went away.