Campbeltown, Scotland: travel guide to the Kintyre whisky town, its distilleries and herring heritage

Campbeltown is a harbour town on the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll and Bute, in the west of Scotland, set on the sheltered waters of Campbeltown Loch. Once one of the richest towns per head in Scotland, it is celebrated as a whisky destination and gives its name to one of the recognised regions of Scotch whisky.

For travellers searching for Campbeltown whisky, Kintyre, the Springbank distillery or things to do in Argyll, this remote town offers a remarkable industrial heritage, a working harbour and dramatic west-coast scenery.

The whisky capital of the world

In the 19th century Campbeltown was nicknamed Whiskyopolis and even claimed the title of whisky capital of the world, with more than thirty distilleries operating in and around the town at its peak. Its success rested on local barley and peat, the controlled water supply of Crosshill Loch, nearby coal and a deep natural harbour that shipped the whisky to Glasgow and beyond. Today three distilleries remain: Springbank, founded in 1828 and still run by the founding family, which is the only Scottish distillery to carry out the full production process on one site; Glen Scotia, founded in 1832; and the revived Glengyle, whose whisky is bottled as Kilkerran. Campbeltown is one of the distinct regional styles of single malt, alongside the Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside and Islay.

History and the herring

Originally known as Kinlochkilkerran, the town was renamed by the Earl of Argyll in the 1600s and became a royal burgh. Alongside whisky, herring fishing brought great prosperity, and at the height of the 19th-century boom hundreds of boats worked out of the harbour. The closure of distilleries and the local coal mine in the 1920s brought hard times, and the town's fortunes have fluctuated since.

Visiting today

The three distilleries welcome visitors and join forces for the annual Campbeltown Malts Festival, and the Campbeltown Heritage Centre tells the wider story of the town. The famous links course at nearby Machrihanish draws golfers, and the surrounding Kintyre peninsula offers some of Scotland's most scenic coastal touring.