greystones

Greystones was built in around 1890 on the site of the Craigard Hotel, which had been partially destroyed by fire. The house is built in the Scottish baronial style and is Category B listed. It was built as a family home for Hugh Cowan, an illiterate stone mason from Oban, who had left the town to seek his fortune in South Africa and had risen to become the Chairman of the Central Diamond Mining Company. The house was named Kimberley House after the famous Kimberley diamond mines which Mr Cowan's company operated. 

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After Hugh Cowan's death in 1920, the house remained in private hands and traded briefly as a hotel, before being sold the Western Regional Hospital Board in 1955. It was converted into a hospital, renamed Gleneuchar (House of the Keys), and was used as Oban's maternity hospital until 1995, when the new hospital was built. The house was left empty for a couple of years and was finally sold in 1997 and converted to a hotel. It was renamed the Kimberley Hotel and traded as an 18 bedroom hotel. In 2012, it underwent another transformation, into a 5 bedroom boutique bed and breakfast, and was renamed Greystones as a reference to the colour of un-cut diamonds.