In between travelling for a first time to the island of Arran and making the journey to the Outer Hebrides we made a visit to Campbelltown.
It’s a Scottish town down towards the Mull of Kintyre and where we have travelled before and on this latest occasion we stopped over in August 2022 Scottish golfing visit.
Campbeltown is situated on the stunning peninsula of Kintyre, and the largest towns in Argyll. It’s a long drive from the main highway leading from Glasgow to the A-83 turnoff but I always say, and while the road is also winding and twisting, it’s just so good they don’t lay down four lanes of bitumen to this special part of the world.
Campbelltown is well south, located on a deep bay sheltered by Davaar Island and the surrounding hills, and can be an ideal base for exploring the many attractions of scenic southern Kintyre.
The town was once proclaimed ‘the whisky capital of the world’ with 34 distilleries, today only three active distilleries remain in the town: Glen Scotia, Glengyle and Springbank.
Visitors can enjoy a guided tour at all three distilleries and find out the secrets of whisky making in Kintyre. Springbank Distillery was founded in 1828 by the Mitchell family – and still in their hands today. It retains the old distilling methods to make Longrow whisky, and welcomes visitors by prior arrangement.
Talking whisky as three days earlier we – Micky Court, Bazza Gentle, Paul Bennett and myself – had visited the Isle of Arran Distillery at Lochranza and located on the northern side of Arran, lying to the east of Campbelltown.
Golf course-wise there is some real Scottish gems including Machrihanish, Machrihanish Dunes and Dunaverty, and we were in Kintyre to play Machrihanish Dunes and Dunaverty where we would a real Scottish gem in the famed Belle Robertson, and then aged 86.
And being in Campbelltown on this sunny Saturday morning was timely as we were fortunate walking the streets of the town and enjoying a nice cappuccino to enjoy the sight and sounds of the Kintyre Schools band.
The band were wearing their traditional Blue Ramsay tartan and, in checking the internet, it was exactly a week earlier the band had been competing in the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow.
And now let’s go marching with the Kintyre Schools Band – check out the reaction from the patrons at the closeby ‘Black Sheep Pub’.
Now you’re the mood, we’ll go for a walk and do some exploring around the harbour area in Campbelltown.
Image – GolfByTourMiss.com
Fishing boats aplenty – Image GolfByTourMiss.com
A boat load of firewood – Image GolfByTourMiss.com
Image – GolfByTourMiss.com
