Campbeltown Loch

Campbeltown Loch (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Chille Chiarain) is a small sea loch near the south of the Kintyre Peninsula facing eastwards towards the Firth of Clyde. The town of Campbeltown, from which it takes its name, is located at its head. The island of Davaar is located in the loch, and can be reach by foot along a natural shingle causeway at low tide. Oddly, while in English the Loch takes its name from Campbeltown, in Gaelic, Campbeltown takes its name from the loch - "Ceann Loch Chille Chiarain".

The song

The loch is immortalised in the folk song of the same name, repopularized by Andy Stewart in the 1960s. In the song (see below) the writer Alan Cameron expresses his desire that the loch be full of whisky. The basis of that ballad is that Campbeltown was originally a centre of whisky distilling but that the price of whisky in Campbeltown itself was too high.

Campbeltown Loch is sung to a march written for the bagpipes, The Glendaruel Highlanders.

Coordinates: 55°25′N 5°33′W / 55.417°N 5.550°W / 55.417; -5.550

Campbeltown

Coordinates: 55°25′23″N 5°36′29″W / 55.423°N 5.608°W / 55.423; -5.608

Campbeltown (ⁱ/ˈkæmbəltən/; Scottish Gaelic: Ceann Loch Chille Chiarain or Ceann Locha) is a town and former royal burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies by Campbeltown Loch on the Kintyre peninsula. Originally known as Kinlochkilkerran (an anglicization of the Gaelic, which means "head of the loch by the kirk of Ciarán"), it was renamed in the 17th century as Campbell's Town after Archibald Campbell (Earl of Argyle) was granted the site in 1667. Campbeltown became an important centre for shipbuilding and Scotch whisky, and a busy fishing port.

Whisky

Campbeltown is one of five areas in Scotland categorised as a distinct malt whisky 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 in the United States, led to most distilleries going out of business. Today only three active distilleries remain in Campbeltown: Glen Scotia, Glengyle, and Springbank.

Campbeltown (Parliament of Scotland constituency)

Campbeltown was a royal burgh that elected one Commissioner to the Estates of Scotland between 1700 and 1707.

Campbeltown in Kintyre was erected a royal burgh by charter of King William II on 19 April 1700, at the request of the Earl of Argyll.

The first and only Commissioner for the burgh was Mr Charles Campbell, who took his seat on 2 November 1700. He was Lord Argyll's brother, and represented the burgh from 1700 to 1702 and in the last Parliament from 1703 to 1707.

Following the Act of Union 1707, Campbeltown was represented in the Parliament of Great Britain as part of the Ayr district of burghs.

See also

References

Campbeltown (disambiguation)

Campbeltown may refer to:

See also