Distillery Cave

"Along the shores of Lorn lies a record of man far more ancient than that of any city in the land. The first settlers arrived on the Mainland in 5000 BC and sheltered in the natural caves... then known as 'an Ob.' The distillery cave was one such shelter hidden in the Creag a'Barrain Cliffs which rise dramatically above the Oban Distillery." [Whisky bottle from Oban Distillery]

Rock cave found 1890 40ft above sea level at the foot of the cliffs behind the Oban Distillery buildings. Owing to various accidents, the stratigraphy and character of the deposits could not be determined, but it seems that an Obanian layer was broached. The remains of four adults and four children were found in this cave, but their relation to the deposit could not be ascertained. [Lacaille]

Distillery Cave: destroyed by blasting. Apparently the back of the distillery was built on top of the site. [Campbell, 1933]

Notes: The material from the Distillery Cave is on display in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Accession no. HL 381-9) with that of other Oban Caves, and is considered to be Obanian.

Links and Resources:

Ashmore, Patrick J., 1996, reprinted 2000 Neolithic Bronze Age Scotland. 128 pp, 85 B&W illus, 12 colour illus. B T Batsford Ltd, London. p. 76.
Canmore ID 23064.
Cullingford C. H. D. (Ed), 1962 edition, British Caving / An introduction to Speleology. 592 pp illus. Pub Routledge Kegan & Paul, London. p. 300.
Hallen, Y. (1994) Re-evaluation of the Human Skeletal Remains from MacKay Cave, Distillery Cave, and MacArthur Cave, Oban. Unpublished archive report, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Hedges, R.E.M. et al. (1995) Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system. Archaeometry datelist 20. Archaeometry 37: 417-430.
Lacaille, A D. (1954a) The Stone Age in Scotland. London. Page(s): 208-10 fig. 83, No. 1, 2 RCAHMS Shelf Number: E.6.1.LAC.
Oldham, A.D., 1975, The Caves of Scotland.
Oldjham, Tony, 2007, Caves of Scotland: A Bibliography, p. 62.
Newell, R.R. et al. (1979) The skeletal remains of Mesolithic man in Western Europe: an evaluative catalogue. Journal of Human Evolution 8: 1-228.
Olalde, I. et al. (2017). The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe.
Pollard, A. (1990) 'Down through the ages: a review of the Oban cave deposits', Scot Archaeol Rev, vol. 7, 1990. Page(s): 58-74.
RCAHMS. (1975) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the ancient monuments: volume 2: Lorn. Edinburgh. Page(s): 5 pl. 2 RCAHMS Shelf Number: A.1.1.INV/19.
Saville, Alan. & Hallen, Ywonne, 1994, The 'Obanian Iron Age': human remains from the Oban cave sites, Argyll, Scotland. Antiquity 68: 715-723.
Sheridan, A. et al. (2019) A summary round-up list of Scottish archaeological human remains that have been sampled/analysed for DNA as of January 2019.
Tolan-Smith, C. (2001) The Caves of Mid Argyll: an Archaeology of Human Use. SAS Monograph Series 20. Edinburgh.
Turner, W. (1895) 'On human and animal remains found in caves at Oban, Argyllshire', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol. 29, 1894-5. Page(s): 418-23, 431-8.

This entry was last updated: 2022-01-21 21:34:06

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NGR:	NM 85988 30176
WGS84:	56.41516, -5.47104
Length:	Not recorded
Vert. Range:	Not recorded
Altitude:	13 m
Geology:	Not recorded
Tags:	Cave, SeaCave, Archaeo, Lost
Registry:	second

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