Popularly known as ‘The Wee Toon’, Campbeltown is the largest settlement in Kintyre with a population of about 5,500.

Founded in the early 1600s the town became a Royal Burgh in 1700 and went on to become a prosperous, bustling fishing port with a well sheltered harbour, a centre for coastal shipping, boat building, coal mining and whisky distilling. In 1900 Campbeltown had the highest per capita income in the country and this prosperity was obvious in the large number of very substantial Victorian and Edwardian villas on both sides of Campbeltown Loch, as well as the high quality architecture of many of its public and private buildings. This led to the town being described, at the beginning of the 20th century, as, ‘Glasgow’s extreme western suburb,’ because of the number of leading Glasgow architects involved.

It is difficult, today, looking at the harbour and the town, to imagine 400 herring boats tied up there; the tremendous bustle of the cleaning and salting of the herring, the rail head near the quay where the coal trains from Machrihanish unloaded, the smoke from the chimneys of thirty four whisky distilleries and the fleets of ships waiting to load the herring barrels, the coal and the whisky.

These industries have long since gone, with only a handful of fishing boats and one distillery remaining.

The entrance to the town from the east coast road is particularly striking, with the whole town and harbour laid out in panorama. Campbeltown is the centre for local services with a good range of shops, two small supermarkets, hospital, plentiful accommodation, a museum, heritage centre and the oldest operating cinema in the country.

The farm land in South Kintyre is fertile with substantial dairy farms, the milk going to the local creamery to produce the award winning Campbeltown Cheddar Cheese.

Close to Campbeltown, though on the Atlantic side of the peninsula, is Machrihanish, a small village with a famous golf course. The first hole at Machrihanish was recently voted, ‘the best first hole in the world’, by top PGA golfers. The course is very challenging and is becoming increasingly well known to overseas golfers, especially from the USA.

Machrihanish was linked to Campbeltown by canal and light railway but both of these have disappeared. While the railway was originally intended as a means of moving coal, it later developed a new life with the growth of tourism in the early 20th century. Linked to the Clyde Steamers bringing passengers from Glasgow to Campbeltown, the ‘wee train’ carried these visitors quickly to the beaches and golf course at Machrihanish.