Campbeltown

Campbeltown was once at the centre of whisky production. Over twenty distilleries operated there in the nineteenth century, encouraged by the abundance of local supplies of peat, barley from the Mull of Kintyre and a nearby source of cheap coal.

However over-production, too-wide variations in quality and the exhaustion of the local coal seam contributed to the decline of the local industry, to the point where only two distilleries now remain.  Cambeltown whiskies are generally accepted to the quite distinctive, with a character which is mellower than that of the Islay malts, with a smoothness and a variable peatiness in the flavour.