The Development of Oban As a Tourist Resort 1770-1901 Fiona Morrison
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The development of Oban as a tourist resort 1770-1901 Fiona Morrison A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2015 Bournemouth University ii “This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and due acknowledgement must always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis.” iii iv Abstract This thesis has contributed to the existing knowledge of the development of tourism in Scotland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has examined both the positive and negative influence which tourists had on the residents and on the overall development of the village of Oban. It focused on the transition of the locality from a village to a tourist-related town over a 130 year period from 1770 to 1901. Throughout the thesis the impact which the landowners and town councillors had on the town’s development was examined. This is something which to date no other study of tourism in Scotland has looked at in any detail. This study has utilised a wide range of historical source materials to reconstruct the evolution of tourism in Oban, making use of both qualitative and quantitative material. Comparisons have been made with other resorts to identify where Oban fitted in to the development of resorts in both the United Kingdom and also within Scotland. Extensive use was made of the early travellers’ accounts to understand why visitors initially came to Oban especially in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In later chapters an in-depth analysis of statistical data taken from a variety of sources including the visitors’ lists from the local newspaper were examined. This was done to not only identify the numbers of visitors who came to the town but also to identify the gender and place of origin of each visitor to determine who was visiting and where were they coming from. A detailed analysis of the census enumerators returns, were also used to illustrate how the occupations of the local population changed over time as tourism became more prevalent in the town. Overall this thesis has highlighted that smaller rural resorts played an important role in the development of tourism in Scotland and their contribution should not be overlooked. v vi Acknowledgements Firstly thank you to my supervisors, Professor Stephen Page and Dr Alistair Durie for their encouragement, help and advice without which I would not have been able to complete this research. I would also like to thank Murdo MacDonald the former Archivist at Argyll & Bute Council in Lochgilphead who was always happy to help and often unearthed pieces of information I would not have found. Also Charles Hunter who gave me copies of many documents from his private papers which I would have been unable to obtain from any other source and Robert MacCulloch for allowing me access to his extensive photographic collection. Thank you to my family, in particular my mum Maimie for all her wonderful support and who kept me going when I could so easily have given up and who allowed her spare bedroom to become a library and general store for every piece of paper and scrap of information gathered over the years. Also a big thank you to my brother Iain who took all my individual chapters and put everything together and to my partner Iain who put up with me ‘living’ in the Victorian era for many years. Finally, I dedicate this thesis to my dad John Morrison, he loved Oban and Argyll and I hope he would have been proud. vii viii Contents Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Thesis overview ....................................................................................... 14 Chapter 2 A historical analysis of tourism literature ........................................... 16 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 16 2.2 What is a resort? ...................................................................................... 18 2.3 Tourism models ....................................................................................... 18 2.4 Resort histories ........................................................................................ 20 2.5 The Scottish picture ................................................................................. 22 2.6 Transport and tourism .............................................................................. 24 2.7 The role played by the landowner and local government ........................ 26 2.8 Changing employment opportunities ...................................................... 27 2.9 The visiting population ............................................................................ 29 Chapter 3 Research Design and Methodology ...................................................... 33 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 33 3.2 Landowners’ archives .............................................................................. 35 3.3 Letters and diaries .................................................................................... 37 3.4 Census enumerators’ books ..................................................................... 38 3.5 Oban’s hoteliers ....................................................................................... 42 3.6 Newspapers .............................................................................................. 42 3.7 Transport records ..................................................................................... 46 Chapter 4 Early explorers, the first travellers and the beginning of tourism in Oban 1770-1817 ..................................................................................... 48 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 48 4.2 The value of travellers’ journals and diaries ........................................... 50 4.3 Reasons for travel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ................ 53 4.4 Changing attitudes to Scotland ................................................................ 56 4.5 Scottish literature ..................................................................................... 60 4.6 The lure of the islands ............................................................................. 65 4.7 Accommodation ...................................................................................... 69 4.8 Conclusions ............................................................................................. 71 ix Chapter 5 The social, environmental and economic development of Oban 1700- 1901 ......................................................................................................... 74 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 74 5.2 1700 to 1771 - Oban before the arrival of the first tourists ..................... 76 5.3 1772 to1817 - The laying out of the planned town ................................. 78 5.4 1818 to1851 - The early development of the resort of Oban .................. 84 5.4.1 Accommodating the visitors .................................................................... 85 5.4.2 Meeting the religious needs of the resident population ........................... 87 5.4.3 The provision of a water supply .............................................................. 89 5.5 1851 to 1901 - Gateway to destination .................................................... 89 5.5.1 Accommodating the visiting population ................................................. 91 5.5.2 Meeting the religious needs of the resident and visiting population ....... 98 5.5.3 Improving the water supply ..................................................................... 99 5.5.4 Further improvements to the town ........................................................ 102 5.6 Conclusions ........................................................................................... 104 Chapter 6 Transport and tourism ........................................................................ 106 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 106 6.2 Coach travel in Britain........................................................................... 108 6.3 Overland travel to Oban ........................................................................ 110 6.4 Building and maintaining the roads in and around Oban ...................... 115 6.5 The importance of sea routes in resort development ............................. 120 6.6 The impact of the railway on resort development ................................. 127 6.7 The Callander and Oban Railway.......................................................... 128 6.8 Conclusions ........................................................................................... 134 Chapter 7 Changing employment opportunities ................................................ 136 7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 136 7.2 Employment opportunities before 1800 ................................................ 139 7.3 The changing pattern of female employment .......................................