Oban Scotch Whisky

498 AD was the fateful year when Fergus, Angus, and Loarn, sons of King Erc of the Scotti mounted an eastern expedition from the Glens of Antrim to invade and colonise the Oban shores, naming their little kingdom "Calriada." Fergus Mac Erc became the first monarch, his seat the great fortress of 'Dunaad." Angus and Loarn help the lands to the North and South to which the latter Loarn gave his name. The monarch moved north to the ancient Pictish fortress of Dun A Mhonaidh near Oban. The Scotti brought with them the sacred block of time worn red sandstone known as 'Lia Fail' the symbolic "Stone of Destiny."

The coastland of the Gaelic people known as "Earra Gael" fell to the dreaded Viking overlorship in the middle of the eighth century when their rule was at its harshest. It was then that the warrior King Somerled mac Gillibride became foremost in Oban history. Part Viking, part Celt, he rallied his oppressed and despairing countrymen leading them towards a new and lasting freedom from their oppressors. His spirit is said to live upon the precipitous crag of Dun Ollaigh which for centuries has been the home for descendents of his son and heir Dougall mac Somhairlie, the founder of the great "Clan MacDougall."

This moment in history is brought to you from the side of a bottle of Oban Single-malt Scotch Whiskey. Who says bartending isn't an intellectual profession?