Campbeltown Area

Campbeltown

Lifeboats in Campbeltown Harbour

Carradale Harbour

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Set in a deep loch, sheltered by Davaar Island and surrounding hills, is Campbeltown, one of the largest towns in Argyll. Its heyday was in the Victorian era with its thriving shipbuilding, fishing and whisky industries.

A popular day trip from Campbeltown is to Davaar Island, accessible from the mainland only at low tide by means of a peculiar dog-leg stretch of shingle. The island is uninhabited, save for sheep, and its main attraction is a cave painting of the Crucifixion secretly produced by a local artist in the late 1800s.

Ten miles south of Campbeltown lies Keil, just to the west of Southend. This is the spot where St Columba is first said to have landed in Scotland on his journey to Iona, in AD563. Two footprints carved in the rock are claimed to mark his first steps ashore. A ruined medieval chapel stands on the site of the one he founded here.

Carskey Bay and Macharioch Bay both have appealing beaches overlooking Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde. Beyond Keil, the road continues to the most southwesterly point of the peninsula, The Mull of Kintyre. From here on a clear day, Ireland, only 12 miles away, is clearly visible.

Campbeltown lies at the eastern end of the only low lying part of Kintyre; the western end being occupied by Machrihanish airfield, which boasts one of the longest runways in the country, and air services to Glasgow.

Further north, you take your pick: east coast or west coast, for there are no cross-connections between Campbeltown in the south and Kennacraig, just south of Tarbert, in the north. Of the two alternatives the west coast is the less populous, but offers the main road, much of it laid along raised beaches standing back from wonderful rocky bays with white sand, complete with superb views of Jura and Islay. And if you want to visit the low-lying and very hospitable island of Gigha, then this is the side to take.

The east coast of Kintyre offers narrower and twistier roads, which become single track north of Carradale. It's not the side for anyone in a hurry, but offers dramatic views of Arran, and a range of surprising little settlements, the most significant of which is Carradale.