An Tobar

An Tobar (An Tobar, “the well”) is the arts centre on Argyll Terrace above Tobermory harbour, a gallery, cafe and small-scale music venue housed in a former Victorian schoolhouse looking down over the bay. The programme runs across visual art exhibitions, traditional and contemporary music, and writing events, and the centre has been the island’s working arts hub for decades.

The gallery carries a rolling exhibition programme with a lean toward Hebridean and west-coast artists, hung through the schoolhouse rooms rather than in a white-cube annex, which suits the scale of the work and the building. The music side is the other half of the draw: the venue’s room is small enough that a traditional-music night or a touring songwriter plays at close quarters, and the season’s programme rolls through the year rather than clustering in a festival window.

The cafe serves through the day during the season, with the schoolhouse’s harbour outlook as the backdrop, and is open to visitors regardless of whether there is an exhibition or a performance on. The climb up from Main Street takes a few minutes on foot and the view back over the painted seafront row is part of the visit.

An Tobar is one of the two arms of the island’s arts organisation; the other is Mull Theatre, the producing theatre company at Druimfin on the edge of town (a separate listing in this guide). Current exhibitions, gig listings and cafe hours at the An Tobar & Mull Theatre website.