A summit unnamed on Ordnance Survey maps, Oban Hill rises to 84m (275 feet) a quarter-mile (0.4 km) east of Oban Railway Station. It is one of a group of hills which curve around the town, somewhat restricting its development. Plans to build the Oban Hydropathic Sanatorium on its western slopes were implemented in 1881 but it was never completed. This grand hotel would have had 137 bedrooms, a concert hall, hydraulic lifts, Turkish and seawater baths, with the intention of attracting visitors from the cities of Scotland and beyond by rail. The ruins have subsequently been quarried for stone, although considerable evidence of the structure remains, perhaps because of the use of concrete, the favoured material of contractor Sir Robert McAlpine (1847 - 1934). There is a covered reservoir on its southern slopes.
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