Campbeltown (; gd, Ceann Loch Chille Chiarain or ) is a town and former royal burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies by Campbeltown Loch on the

Kintyre Peninsula Kintyre ( gd, Cinn Tìre, ) is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The peninsula stretches about , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south to East and West Loch Tarbert in the north. The region immediately north ...

. Campbeltown became an important centre for

Scotch whisky Scotch whisky (; sco, Scots whisky/whiskie, whusk(e)y; often simply called whisky or Scotch) is malt whisky or grain whisky (or a blend of the two), made in Scotland. All Scotch whisky was originally made from malted barley. Commercial distil ...

, and a busy fishing port. The 2018 population estimate was 4,600 indicating a reduction since the 2011 census.

History

Originally known as Kinlochkilkerran (an anglicization of the Gaelic, which means 'head of the

loch ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots language, Scots and Irish language, Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is Cognate, cognate with the Manx language, Manx lough, Cornish language, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh language, Welsh w ...

by the kirk of

Ciarán Ciarán (Irish spelling) or Ciaran (Scottish Gaelic spelling) is a traditionally male given name of Irish origin. It means "little dark one" or "little dark-haired one", produced by appending a diminutive suffix to ''ciar'' ("black", "dark"). ...

'), Campbeltown was renamed in the 17th century as ''Campbell's Town'' after Archibald Campbell ( Earl of Argyll) was granted the site in 1667. Campbeltown Town Hall was completed in 1760. The

Royal National Lifeboat Institution The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

opened Campbeltown Lifeboat Station in 1861. The present building dates from 1996.

Economy

In addition to the benefits of distilling, and whisky tourism, there were two major employers in 2018, Campbeltown Creamery and CS Wind UK, who provided "a substantial portion of the Campbeltown area’s high skilled jobs and are a vital part of the local economy," according to the Scottish government. A report in October 2019 had raised warning signs for the economy of Argyll & Bute; the report also suggested that up to 70 jobs at CS Wind UK could be lost but did not specify a time frame. Both companies confirmed the prediction of job redundancies, leading the Scottish government to hold an emergency summit in November 2019 to discuss steps that might be taken for improving the local economy. Participants included Argyll & Bute Council, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, trades unions and local employers. After the summit, a "working group" was formed in late November 2019. The number of dairy farms supplying Campbeltown Creamery reduced from 147 to 28 and the number of dairy cows fell from 6600 to 2500. Consequently, the Creamery became unviable. A plan by a small number of local dairy farmers to take over the running of the Creamery failed in early December 2019. The milk produced in Kintyre is now transported by road tankers to Lockerbie and Mull of Kintyre Cheddar is no longer available. By early December 2019, CS Wind UK had declared 22 jobs redundant. The Scottish government was working with the company to search for long-term solutions. Preliminary discussions did not produce optimism about the future stability of the company. The Unite union indicated that while CS Wind had been profitable, it was not receiving an adequate number of orders to sustain full employment. The plant was shut down in 2019 and production shifted to CS Wind's cheaper Vietnam plant in

Phú Mỹ Phú Mỹ is a district-level town of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province in southeast Vietnam. the town had a population of 175,872. The town covers an area of 333.84 km². Phú Mỹ was formerly Tân Thành District, a rural district of B ...

Whisky

Campbeltown is one of five areas in Scotland categorised as a distinct

malt whisky Malt whisky is whisky made from a fermented mash consisting primarily of malted barley. If the product is made exclusively at a single distillery (along with other restrictions), it is typically called a single malt whisky. Although malt whisky ca ...

producing region, and is home to the Campbeltown single malts. At one point it had over 30 distilleries and proclaimed itself "the whisky capital of the world". However, a focus on quantity rather than quality, and the combination of Prohibition and the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

in the United States, led to most distilleries going out of business. Today only three active distilleries remain in Campbeltown:

Glen Scotia Glen Scotia distillery or sometimes affectionately known as The Scotia or Old Scotia is a distillery that is a producer of single malt Scotch whisky. The distillery was founded in 1832 and is one of just three distilleries left in Campbeltown, the ...

Glengyle Glengyle distillery is a long-established Scotch whisky production centre in Campbeltown, Argyll & Bute, that closed down in 1925. In 2000 it was totally re-planned as the first new Scottish distillery of the millennium. Its single malts are bot ...

, and Springbank. Campbeltown is a " protected locality" for Scotch Whisky distilling under the UK's Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009. The

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

titled "Campbeltown Loch, I wish you were whisky" is based on the town's history in this industry.

Climate

As with the rest of Scotland, Campbeltown experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. The nearest official

Met Office The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...

weather station for which online records are available is at Campbeltown Airport/

RAF Machrihanish Royal Air Force Machrihanish or RAF Machrihanish (formerly ) is a former Royal Air Force station located near the town of Machrihanish and west of Campbeltown, at the tip of the Kintyre, Kintyre peninsula, Argyll and Bute, in Scotland. Two a ...

, about west of the town centre. The lowest temperature to be reported in recent years was during December 2010.

Culture

The old Library and Museum, Campbeltown - geograph

The Wee Picture House, Campbeltown, Kintyre - geograph

Campbeltown boasts a museum and a heritage centre. The museum has a varied collection of items from Campbeltown's past, and

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

items excavated from sites around Kintyre, such as axeheads, jewellery and combs. The 19th-century building, by John James Burnet, also houses the Registrars office and Customer Service Point for Argyll and Bute council and has plaques or exhibits related to famous Kintyre people: for example,

William McTaggart William McTaggart (25 October 1835 – 2 April 1910) was a Scottish landscape and marine painter who was influenced by Impressionism. Life and work The son of a crofter, William McTaggart was born in the small village of Aros, near Camp ...

and William Mackinnon. Near the museum is the cinema known as the '' Wee Picture House'', a small but distinctive

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

building of the Glasgow School dating from 1913 and believed to be the oldest surviving purpose-built cinema in Scotland. These buildings are on the waterfront, as is a 14th-century

Celtic cross The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses er ...

that also served as a mercat cross. St Kieran ( Ciarán of Clonmacnoise) lived in this area before the town existed. A cave named after him can be visited at low tide, as can the cave on nearby

Island Davaar Island Davaar or Davaar Island ( gd, Eilean Dà Bhàrr) is located at the mouth of Campbeltown Loch off the east coast of Kintyre, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is a tidal island, linked to the mainland by a natural Shingle beach, shingle cau ...

where pilgrims and tourists go to see a 19th-century crucifixion painting. Campbeltown also hosts the annual Mull Of Kintyre Music Festival, which has seen acts ranging from up-and-coming local bands to well-established groups such as Deacon Blue, The Stranglers and Idlewild perform. The Kintyre Songwriters Festival, a fairly low key annual gathering aimed at promoting the wealth and variety of original music across the area, which started in 2009. The festival is held during the last weekend of May and is open to anyone interested in performing. On Friday 16 June 2006, First Minister

Jack McConnell Jack Wilson McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, (born 30 June 1960) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2001 to 2007. McConnell served as the Minister ...

flew to Campbeltown to officially open Campbeltown's new 'Aqualibrium' Centre. Aqualibrium, designed by

Page\Park Architects Page\Park Architects was established in 1981 by David Page and Brian Park and has developed as one of Scotland's best known practices undertaking work over a range of sectors. With over 150 national and international design awards since its inc ...

, replaced the old Campbeltown swimming pool, which was previously closed due to safety concerns; the centre houses Campbeltown's library (with the old building being the museum only), swimming pool, gym, conference centre and 'Mussel Ebb' Cafe. The Kintyre Camanachd are a local

shinty Shinty ( gd, camanachd, iomain) is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread in Scotland, an ...

team that belongs to the Camanachd Association. The local amateur football team, Campbeltown Pupils AFC, are members of the West of Scotland Football League Division 4 which largely comprises clubs based in the Greater Glasgow and Inverclyde areas, requiring the Campbeltown team to make a round trip of over for away fixtures most weekends. Argyll FM is a local radio station based in Campbeltown on 106.5, 107.1 and 107.7. In May 2012 Campbeltown and Dunoon were jointly named in a report by the Scottish Agricultural College as the rural places in Scotland most vulnerable to a downturn. The "vulnerability index" ranked 90 Scottish locations according to factors associated with economic and social change.

Transport

Campbeltown Airport is near the town, and has a scheduled service to/from Glasgow International Airport on weekdays and some summer Sundays. The town is the westernmost town in the island of Great Britain (if the port of Mallaig is not counted as a town). It has the population of a large village, but lays claim to its town status based on its port and its central close grid of streets. Its position near the end of a long peninsula makes for a time-consuming road journey, and to some extent the area relies on sea and air transport, like the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...

. However it is linked to the rest of Scotland by the A83 (to Tarbet) and A82 (from Tarbet to Glasgow). Bus service is provided by

West Coast Motors West Coast Motors (legally incorporated as Craig of Campbeltown Limited) is a bus, coach and ferry operator, based in Campbeltown, Scotland. The company also operates under the name ''Borders Buses'' and ''Glasgow Citybus''. History The foundi ...

, who also operate services to Glasgow for

Scottish Citylink Scottish Citylink is a long-distance express coach operator in Scotland and Ireland (where it operates as Irish Citylink) and England (where it operates as Stansted Citylink). The company was formed as a subsidiary of Scottish Transport Group i ...

. Ferries sail from Campbeltown to Ballycastle in Northern Ireland, operated by Kintyre Express. The service, which runs to Ballycastle every Friday to Monday during summer months and on Mondays and Fridays during the winter months, commenced in 2011. In 2006 a foot passenger ferry operated by Kintyre Express ran between Campbeltown and Troon every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a crossing time of one hour in calm weather. By 2007 this ferry no longer ran, although the vessel can be chartered privately. Starting 23 May 2013, Caledonian MacBrayne began operating a ferry service across the Firth of Clyde to Ardrossan, calling at Brodick on Saturdays. Campbeltown was linked to Machrihanish by a canal (1794 – mid-1880s) that was superseded by the Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway, which closed in 1932. The railway, which was originally built to serve the

Machrihanish Coalfield The Machrihanish Coalfield is a coalfield on the Kintyre peninsula in southwest Scotland. It is one of the smallest British coalfields. With the exception of a thin coal beneath the Lyoncross Limestone in the overlying Upper Limestone Formation, al ...

, ran from Campbeltown railway station to

Machrihanish railway station Machrihanish was a railway station in the village of Machrihanish, Argyll and Bute, serving the town. The Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway was a 2 ft 3 in (686 mm) narrow gauge railway in Kintyre, Scotland, between the towns ...

Language

Campbeltown is one of the few communities in the Scottish Highlands where the Scots language predominated in recent centuries, rather than the previously widespread Scottish Gaelic, an enclave of Lowland Scots speech surrounded by Highland Scottish speech.

Notable people

Main Street and Campbeltown Cross - geograph

* Alexander Beith, minister and author in Gaelic and English. Free Church Moderator * Hugh Henry Brackenridge, American writer, lawyer, judge, and justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court *

John Campbell Mitchell John Campbell Mitchell ARSA (1861 – 15 February 1922) was a late 19th and early 20th century Scottish landscape artist. He specialised in broad open views such as moorland or beaches. Life He was born John Mitchell'' on Shore Street in Campbe ...

, landscape artist *

T. Lindsay Galloway Thomas Lindsay Galloway MA, FRSE. FGS, AMInst, MInstME (1854 – 22 September 1921) was the youngest son of William Galloway (1799–1854) shawl manufacturer and coal master of Paisley, Scotland and Margaret Lindsay (1818–1902). He was a civil ...

, civil and mining engineer and coal master of Argyll Colliery *

James Gulliver James Gerald Gulliver CVO FRSE FRSA FICE (17 August 1930 – 12 September 1996) was the founder of Argyll Foods, one of the United Kingdom's largest retail businesses. Career He was born in Campbeltown, Scotland, the son of successful grocer Will ...

, founder of Argyll Foods * Sir William Mackinnon, 1st Baronet, Scottish ship-owner and businessman *

Norman Macleod (Caraid nan Gaidheal) Norman MacLeod, known in Gaelic as ''Caraid nan Gàidheal'' ("friend of the Gael"), was a Church of Scotland minister, poet, and writer. He was Chaplain to Queen Victoria and Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland. Life He was the son of the Rev ...

, Scottish divine and miscellaneous writer, served at the parish of Campbeltown, father of Norman Macleod (below) * Norman Macleod, Scottish clergyman and author *

Angus MacVicar Angus MacVicar (28 October 1908, Argyll – 31 October 2001, Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute) was a Scottish author with a wide-ranging output. His greatest successes came in three separate genres: crime thrillers, juvenile science fiction, and a ...

, author and broadcaster *

Neil McBain Neil McBain (15 November 1895 – 13 May 1974) was a Scottish professional footballer and football manager. He remains the oldest player to appear in an English Football League match aged 51 years. Playing career Club McBain, a wing half ...

, professional footballer and football manager * Paul McCartney, musician, singer, songwriter, ex-member of the Beatles and an ex-leader of Wings, owns a farm (named High Park) near the town *

Jill McGown Jill McGown (9 August 1947 in Campbeltown, Scotland – 6 April 2007 in Kettering, Northamptonshire) was a British writer of mystery novels. She was best known for her mystery series featuring Inspector Lloyd and Judy Hill, one of which ('' ...

, British writer of mystery novels * Duncan McNab McEachran, Canadian veterinarian and academic *

Dan McPhail Daniel McPhail (9 February 1903 – October 1987) was a Scottish professional association football, footballer who made 437 appearances in the Football League playing for Portsmouth F.C., Portsmouth and Lincoln City F.C., Lincoln City. He played ...

, professional footballer who made 437 appearances in the Football League *

, landscape artist * Denzil Meyrick, author of Kinloch novels *

John Neil Munro John Neil Munro, Scottish journalist and biographer. Background John Neil Munro was born in Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, and grew up in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. He studied Modern and Economic History at the University of Glasgow and then pos ...

, journalist and author of biographies * Rodney Pattisson, English yachtsman * George Pirie, artist who was associated with the Glasgow Boys in the 1880s *

Kieran Prendergast Sir Walter Kieran Prendergast (born 2 July 1942) is a British retired diplomat who was Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at the United Nations. Prendergast was born in Campbeltown, Scotland, and received his education at St Patrick's ...

, diplomat and a former Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at the United Nations * Bob Pursell, footballer who played for Liverpool F.C. in the early 20th century *

Peter Pursell Peter Pursell (1 July 1894 – 14 August 1968) was a Scottish Association football, footballer. A Defender (association football), defender, he won one Cap (sport), cap for Scotland national football team, Scotland in 1914. He was the younger b ...

, footballer. he won one cap for Scotland in 1914 *Very Rev James Curdie Russell,

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland, minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week i ...

minister of Campbeltown *

Angus Stewart, Lord Stewart Angus Stewart, Lord Stewart (born 14 December 1946) is a Scottish lawyer and retired judge. From 2010 to 2016 he was a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland. Early life Stewart was born in Campbeltown and ...

, lawyer and Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland *

John Stewart John Stewart may refer to: Business * John Aikman Stewart (1822–1926), American banker * John Killough Stewart (1867–1938), businessman and philanthropist in Queensland, Australia * John K. Stewart (1870–1916), American entrepreneur and inve ...

, Australian politician * Gerald Tait, Olympic sailor * Lawrence Tynes,

placekicker Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter. Spe ...

in the National Football League. Grew up in Campbeltown when his father was with the US Navy * George Wylie, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly and State Senate

Town twinnings

Campbeltown is twinned with

Kümmersbruck Kümmersbruck is a municipality in the Amberg-Sulzbach district, in the state of Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 3 km southeast of Amberg. A division of the German Military is stationed here. Kümmersbruck is split up in 7 districts: Kümmer ...

, Bavaria, Germany.

Gallery

References

External links

Come to CampbeltownCampbeltown WebsiteCampbeltown Courier - source for local newsMull Of Kintyre Music Festival- official siteKintyre Songwriters Festival- official siteThe Picture House
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbeltown Towns in Argyll and Bute Scots language Royal burghs Ports and harbours of Scotland Fishing communities in Scotland Plantations (settlements or colonies) Kintyre Firth of Clyde Populated coastal places in Scotland Parishes in Argyll