A Distillery in (almost) Every Street
A Distillery in (almost) Every Street
Alex Kraaijeveld
Campbeltown, the Whisky Capital of Scotland .... This is not the first time these words have been written and it surely won't be the last time. Campbeltown, or Kinlochkilkerran as it was known in the 17th century, has a unique place in Scotland's whisky heritage as the town that harboured the largest concentration of licensed distilleries. And despite rumours to the contrary, I can tell from personal experience that Campbeltown Loch is not filled with whisky .....
Well over 30 distilleries are known to have operated in and around Campbeltown since the changes in Excise laws in the first two decades of the 19th century. Although records are often sketchy and sometimes contradicting (especially for the earlier part of the 19th century), the following list gives, as well as sources allow, the names of these distilleries in order of establishment with the year of closure. The list is mostly based on Duncan Colville's List of Distilleries in Campbeltown, erected since 1817, compiled and first published in the 1930s; Norman Newton's Campbeltown's Distilleries, published 1991 (I want to acknowledge the Argyll & Bute Libraries for their help in obtaining these two sources); Brian Townsend's Scotch Missed (1993) and Charles Craig's Scotch Whisky Industry Record (1994).
1815 (1817?): Campbeltown (-1924)
1823: Caledonian (-185?) and Kinloch (-1926)
1824: Meadowburn (-1886), Longrow (-1896), Dalaruan (-1922) and Lochhead (-1928)
1825: Burnside (-1924), Hazelburn (-1925) and Rieclachan (-1934)
1826: Union (-185?)
1827: McKinnon's Argyll (-1844), Highland (-1852) and (1828?) Glenramskill (-1852)
1828: Springbank
1830: Lochside (-1852), West Highland (-186?), Albyn (-192?), Springside (-1926) and (1834?) Glenside (-1926)
1831: Kintyre (-192?)
1832: Dalintober (-1925) and Glen Scotia
1833: Broombrae (-1834) and (1835?) Lochruan (-1925)
1834: Mossfield (-1837), Mountain Dew (-18??), Drumore (-183?) and Toberanrigh (-1860)
1844: Argyll (-1923)
1868: Benmore (-1927)
1873: Glengyle (-1925)
1877: Glen Nevis (-1923)
1879: Ardlussa (-1923)
One additional distillery name, Thistle, is thought to have been another name for Mountain Dew. Several more distilleries are known to have existed, but their names are not recorded; there was certainly another one in Dalintober and possibly a second Drumore distillery.
Using mainly the Colville and Newton sources, I have tried to indicate the position of virtually all distilleries listed on a schematic street map of present-day Campbeltown. Drumore was located to the north of Campbeltown and Glenramskill along the shore of Campbeltown Loch to the south; Mountain Dew is the only one of which I have no indication whatsoever as to its location. The positions are given as accurately as the sources allow me and I would be very keen to get in touch with anyone with additional information to improve this map!
If it looks crowded, it was … but keep in mind that not all distilleries were active at the same time. The graph illustrates this: it plots the number of licensed distilleries for each decade since the beginning of the 19th century until the present day (again, as well as sources allow). The boom after the change in Excise laws took the number of distilleries rapidly up to almost 30, but this soon stabilised at a little over 20; when Barnard visited Campbeltown in the 1880s, 21 distilleries were active.
The bust followed the boom in the 1920s when the number went down to 3 and then 2 after the closure of Rieclachan. For much of the last decade, Springbank has basically kept the proud Campbeltown flag flying on his own, although fortunately distilling at Glen Scotia has started again. As for Campbeltown's future as a whisky city in the 21st century ... will the graph go up again? Time will tell!
Remnants of Campbeltown's whisky past can still be found when wandering through the town today. Quite by accident, I bumped into this weathered and barely readable sign at the junction of Lochend Street and Saddell Street. The building, looking out over Kinloch Park and Campbeltown Loch, obviously used to be one of the warehouses of Lochhead distillery.
I would very much like to add more photos of remnants of Campbeltown's Victorian whisky glory to this article. So, if anyone reading this has visited Campbeltown and took photos of buildings that used to house one of the many disappeared distilleries, or other distilling mementos, get in touch!
© 2000 Alex Kraaijeveld
