6-Bed Coastal House on Old Shore Road, Connel – Second Home Near Oban & the Hebrides



Almar, Old Shore Road, Connel, Oban, Argyll and Bute, PA37, United Kingdom, Oban (Great britain)
6 Bedrooms · 5 Bathrooms · 180m² Floor area
€637,650
House
No parking
6 Bedrooms
5 Bathrooms
180m²
Garden
No pool
Not furnished
Description
Stand in the first-floor landing on a clear October morning and the view stops you cold. Loch Etive stretches west toward the Atlantic, the hills of Benderloch catching the low autumn light, and the only sound through the open window is the distant rush of water tumbling through the Falls of Lora at the narrows. That's Almar on a Tuesday. On a Saturday it's marginally better, because the Oban farmers' market is on and the smell of fresh langoustines grilling at the harbourfront drifts all the way up the coast road.
This is a six-bedroom, five-bathroom detached house sitting on Old Shore Road in Connel, a small village on the southern shore of Loch Etive just four miles from the centre of Oban. At 180 square metres arranged over two storeys, it's a proper family-sized home — not a weekend bothy — and it carries itself with the kind of quiet confidence that comes from being well built and thoughtfully updated. EPC rating C, solar panels, an air source heat pump: someone here was thinking about running costs before running costs became a talking point.
The ground floor is anchored by a kitchen that actually earns that description. A large central island, substantial wall and base units, integrated appliances, and a dining area generous enough for eight people around a table without anyone playing elbow Tetris. It flows into a utility room and a ground-floor shower room — both practical, both often the features that clinch a purchase when you're imagining walking in off a muddy hillside after an afternoon on the Cruachan ridge. A double bedroom with its own ensuite sits at ground level too, which matters enormously if you have elderly relatives visiting or guests who can't do stairs. There's also a study off the hall, handy for the remote-working buyer who needs a door they can close.
Upstairs, the main bedroom and second bedroom each have their own ensuite bathrooms. Three further double bedrooms share a well-proportioned family bathroom. A sixth room — currently doing duty as an office, accessed via its own staircase from the ground floor — gives the layout an unusual flexibility: home cinema, teenage den, extra guest room, painting studio. Connel gets artists. You'll understand why once you've seen what the light does to Loch Etive in July.
The lounge sits at the front of the house, where a large picture window frames that coastal view like an ever-changing painting. There's a wood-burning stove in here, and on a February night with rain coming in sideways off the loch, it earns its place completely. Scotland is not always benign. That's half the point. The contrast between the warmth inside and the drama outside is precisely what makes a house like this feel alive in a way that a villa in guaranteed sunshine never quite does.
Outside, a wide driveway handles multiple cars easily — a genuine consideration when the whole family descends. A single garage provides storage or workshop space. The front garden runs to an elevated lawn with low planting along the boundaries. At the rear, the garden steps down in tiers, with well-planted borders, a large patio for evening meals when the midges have gone home, and direct access back to the garage.
Now for the part that separates Connel from any number of attractive Scottish villages: the access. Oban's CalMac ferry terminal is four miles away, running services to Mull, Lismore, Colonsay, Islay, and points further north and west. For buyers who want the Hebrides as a weekend option — and once you've spent forty-eight hours on Colonsay you will want it repeatedly — this is an extraordinary position. Connel Bridge, a minute from the door, connects to a small airstrip with scheduled flights to Tiree, Coll, and the Outer Hebrides. ScotRail runs daily direct trains from Oban to Glasgow Queen Street, covering the journey in roughly three hours. An hourly bus service connects Connel to Oban's town centre.
Glencoe is forty minutes north. The ski lifts at Glencoe Mountain Resort open in December — genuinely one of the most exhilarating places to ski in Britain, partly because the terrain is serious and partly because the drive up through the glen en route is unlike anything else in the country. Fort William and Ben Nevis are another twenty minutes beyond that. To the south, the Kilmartin Glen archaeological complex — an extraordinary concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments strung across a flat valley floor — is about an hour's drive and largely unknown outside Scotland. It should be a UNESCO site. One day it probably will be.
In Connel itself, the Falls of Lora Hotel and the Oyster Inn handle the dining and socialising. The Oyster Inn in particular has the kind of menu — local scallops, hand-dived Loch Fyne oysters, cullen skink made properly — that reminds you why this coastline has fed people well for centuries. Tralee Beach near Benderloch is fifteen minutes away, a wide crescent of pale sand that's never overrun because most visitors don't know it exists. Ganavan Beach on the north side of Oban is similarly uncrowded.
Walking, cycling, kayaking, sailing, sea fishing: take your pick. The Sustrans cycling route 78 passes nearby. Loch Etive itself is navigable by kayak for miles east into increasingly remote country. The Oban Sailing Club is active, the waters here are challenging enough to be interesting and manageable enough to be enjoyable for mixed-ability crews.
For the international buyer — and this is increasingly attracting interest from buyers in Europe, North America, and beyond — the Scottish second home market carries specific practical considerations worth knowing. There is an additional Land and Buildings Transaction Tax supplement on second homes in Scotland, currently set at 6% above the standard rates, so factor this into acquisition costs. Overseas buyers purchase in sterling with no foreign ownership restrictions. The property can be let on a short-term holiday let basis; Oban and the surrounding area sees strong summer demand, with the shoulder seasons of May and September increasingly popular as the whisky tourism and wildlife-watching markets have grown. A property management company based in Oban can handle keys, changeovers, and maintenance between owner visits, making remote ownership entirely workable.
At £637,650, Almar is priced at a level that reflects both its scale and its location — six bedrooms and five bathrooms in a coastal position with this quality of view does not appear regularly. The property is in good condition and move-in ready; no remedial works are needed before first use.
Key features at a glance:
- Six bedrooms, five bathrooms (including three ensuites) across two storeys
- 180 sq m of flexible, well-laid-out accommodation
- Exceptional coastal views over Loch Etive from the lounge and upper floor
- Wood-burning stove in the main sitting room
- Large kitchen with central island and integrated appliances
- Ground-floor bedroom with ensuite — ideal for guests or accessibility
- Sixth bedroom with independent staircase access, usable as office, studio, or extra guest room
- Solar panels and air source heat pump; EPC rating C
- Tiered rear garden with patio and well-planted borders; single garage
- Ample driveway parking for multiple vehicles
- 4 miles from Oban town centre, CalMac ferry terminal, and ScotRail station
- 40 minutes from Glencoe ski resort and mountain terrain
- Access to Hebrides flights via Connel Bridge airstrip
- Strong short-term holiday let market with professional management options available
- No foreign ownership restrictions; move-in ready condition
If you'd like to arrange a private viewing of Almar or get answers to your questions about buying a second home in Argyll and Bute, get in touch with the team at Homestra today. Properties with this combination of space, position, and access to the Scottish west coast don't stay available for long.
Details
- Amount of bedrooms
- 6
- Size
- 180m²
- Price per m²
- €3,543
- Garden size
- 3290m²
- Has Garden
- Yes
- Has Parking
- No
- Has Basement
- No
- Condition
- good
- Amount of Bathrooms
- 5
- Has swimming pool
- No
- Property type
- House
- Energy label
Unknown
Images





Sign up to access location details

































