Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

CAMPBELTOWN
CAMPBELTOWN
the quondam Dalruadhain, as a sort of capital of their
territory ; and, renovating or rebuilding the town, with
addition of a strong castle, called it Kinlochkerran, sig-
nifying the head of Ciaran's Loch. James V., in the
course of his conflicts with the Macdonalds, brought a
strong force against the town, but he met much resist-
ance, and could scarcely be said to subdue it ; afterwards
he made a grant of it, and of all the surrounding ter-
ritory, to the Campbells of Argyll, and gave them
authority to seize and hold it by their own military
power. The terrible struggle that followed was pro-
longed through many years, and so depopulated Kin-
lochkerran and all Kintyre as to convert them almost
into a desert. The famous Earl of Argyll sent hence,
in 1685, his notable declaration of war against James
VII. ; and, notwithstanding his own immediate fall,
led the way to a grand change of the local fortunes after
the revolution of 1688. The Lowlanders who had joined
his standard were encouraged to settle in Kintyre, speci-
ally on and around the site of the ancient Dalruadhain ;
others came from the opposite mainland, bringing with
them their servants and dependants, and speedily these
formed a community of pious and industrious inhabi-
tants. The town had been made a burgh of barony,
but was then no more in reality than a fishing village ;
it had undergone change of name from Kinlochkerran to
Campbeltown, in honour of its new proprietors, the
Campbells of Argyll ; it began now to be much improved,
or almost reconstructed, by its new masters ; and, in
1700, it was constituted a royal burgh. Its history
thenceforth is simply a record of progress and steady
prosperity.
Seal of Campbeltown.
The town, curving round the head of the bay in the
segment of a circle, has streets more picturesque in
grouping than orderly in detail ; but includes, scattered
about the shore and on the slopes of the hills, a number
of villas and other houses which add much to the pleasant
aspect of the bay, and give a general aspect of taste and
opulence. The ancient castle, said to have been rebuilt
by James V. , has left no traces. A granite cross, richly
sculptured with foliage, stands in the main street ; ap-
pears to date from the 12th century; was thought by
Gordon, in his Iti'iierarium Septentrionale, to be a
Danish obelisk ; is commonly believed to have been
brought from either Oronsay or Iona — most probably
from Iona ; but, not impossibly, was cut and carved near
the spot on which it stands. The prison, as altered and
enlarged in 1871, contains 15 cells. Other public edifices
are the county buildings (1871), a handsome stone struc-
ture in the Baronial style ; the town-hall, with a spire ;
the custom house ; a public wash-house ; and a Gothic
Good Templars' hall (1872). Four parish churches and
several small chapels were formerly in the town ; but
two of the churches are now in ruins, and none of the
chapels are represented by more than fragments of wall
or heaps of rubbish. One of the two existing churches
occupies the site of the ancient castle, and is sometimes
called the Castlehill church ; it was built in 1781, and
contains 1083 sittings. The second or Gaelic church
228
was built in 1807, and contains 1528 sittings ; its fine
stone spire was added in 1836. There are also two Free
churches, the one at Lochend, the other in Lome Street,
a U.P. church, St Ciaran's Episcopal church, and St
Ciaran's Roman Catholic church (1850 ; 432 sittings),
to which last a presbytery and schoolhouse were added
in 1880. The IJ.P. church, rebuilt in 1872 at a cost of
£11,000, is in the Greco-Italian stj'le, with a massive
tower 150 feet high, surmounted by an open-ribbed lan-
tern dome ; contains 950 sittings, arranged in amphi-
theatre form ; and has behind it a meeting-hall with 200
sittings. The site of the previous church was imme-
diately in front of the present one, and is now laid out
in shrubberies. Five schools under the burgh school-
board (Grammar, Millknowe, Argyll Street female nxVus-
trial, Campbeltown do. , and Dalintober Miss Campbell's
charity), with respective accommodation for 420, 400,
155, 138, and 239 children, had (1880) an average at-
tendance of 222, 338, 108, 124, and 236, and grants of
£186, 7s., £299, 5s., £84, ISs., £78, lis., and £226.
There are further an athenaeum, an agricultural society,
a national lifeboat establishment, and various local
charities. Campbeltown is the headquarters of the
Argyll and Bute Artillery Militia, and has an artillery
volunteer battery and a rifle volunteer corps ; one of its
privates, Alex. Ferguson, was Queen's prizeman at
Wimbledon in 1880.
The town possesses a head post office, with money
order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph depart-
ments, offices of the Koyal, Commercial, and Clydesdale
banks, a savings' bank (1827), 17 insurance agencies, 5
chief hotels and inns, gas and water works, and 2 Satur-
day papers, the Independent Argijllshire Herald (1S55),
and the Conservative Campbeltown Courier (1873).
Friday is market-day ; and horse fairs are held on the
first Thursday of February, the second last Wednesday
of May, the second Thursday of August, and the third
Thursday of November. The harbour, with a depth of
from 3 to 15 fathoms at low water, possesses three piers ;
and a lighthouse on Davarr island, built at a cost of
£4916 in 1S54, shows every half minute a white revolv-
ing light, visible at a distance of 15 nautical miles. On
31 Dec. 1SS0, 45 vessels of 2830 tons were registered as
belonging to the port, 4 of 517 tons being steamers,
against a total tonnage of 2251 in 18-35, 148S in 1843,
1724 in 1861, 2355 in 1873, and 3046 in 1878. The fol-
lowing table gives the tonnage of vessels that entered
and cleared from and to foreign and colonial ports and
coastwise, in cargoes and also (for the three last years)
in ballast :—
Entered.
Cleared.
1851
1861
1S74
1S79
18SO
British.
Foreign.
Total.
British.
Foreign.
Total.
65,099
43,692
61,S38
87,165
S3,376
36
2,353
2,014
3,014
65,135
43,692
64,191
S9,179
S6,390
49,494
37,222
60,454
S6,206
82.S24
2,244
2',013
2,924
49,494
37,222
62,698
SS.219
S5.74S
Of the total, 937 vessels of 86,390 tons, that entered m
1880, 451 of 60,901 tons were steamers, 116 of 13,516
tons were in ballast, and 905 of 81,465 tons were coasters ;
whilst the total, 920 of 85,748 tons, of those that cleared,
included 447 steamers of 60,228 tons, 434 ships in bal-
last of 29,372 tons, and 912 coasters of 84,615 tons. Of
coal 28,903 tons were received coastwise in 1879, other
imports being barley, timber, and general merchandise ;
the chief exports, whisky, fish, live-stock, potatoes, etc.
In 18S0 the value of the total exports was £754, of
foreign and colonial imports £65,609 (£78,200 in 1879).
Steamers sail daily to Glasgow in summer and thrice a
week in winter. Campbeltown also is head of the fishery
district between Fort William and Inverary, in which,
during 1880, there were cured 44,788 barrels of white
herrings, besides 105,155 cod, ling, and hake — taken by
639 boats of 3404 tons, the persons employed being 1607
fishermen and boys, 45 curers, 10 coopers, and 475 others,
and the total value of boats, nets, and lines being esti-