Between the 1820s and 1920s Campbeltown at the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula was the whisky distilling capitol of the world. At its peak there were over 30 distilleries operating in the town and in the 1880s the annual production of malt whisky reached 10,000,000 litres. By the 1930s there were only three distilleries left one of which closed in 1934. Cambeltown still holds the crown as the smallest malt whisky region whose characteristics are a full bodied and flavoured malt with a briny aftertaste and a hint of peaty character of the Islay malts.
Cambeltown’s rise to prominence was an accident of human and physical geography. The town itself was one of three planted by an Act of Parliament in 1597 by which James VI hoped to control the Highland clans. In 1609 Duke of Argyll ejected the native MacNeills, MacAlisters and MacKays to replace them with Campbells and lowland Covenanters. The lowland farmers replaced the traditional runrig system with larger mixed farms whose primary crop was barley. Coal was mined at Machrihanish and in the late C18 a canal was dug to bring the coal to Cambeltown. Although today the town seems very remote from the rest of Scotland (and indeed it is only 20 miles from Ireland), up to the 1950s there was a daily steamer to the British Empire’s second city, Glasgow, which provided a thirsty market for Cambeltown whisky.
By the early C20 however the writing was on the wall: the volume of whisky being produced each season was four times that coming out of bond; Cambeltown whisky was traditionally sold as malt in the barrel direct to small suppliers while the market was changing to malt production for blending; the economics of some of the larger Cambeltown distilleries relied on a rapid turn around and sale; the final nails were the loss of the export market during WWI and prohibition in the USA.
The Scotia distillery was built in 1832 on the high street of the Cambeltown northern suburb of Dalintober. In fact up to the 1860s when Cambeltown became the preferred name depending where you lived around the loch you might refer to your place of residence as Dalintober, Lochend or Kinloch Kilkeran. In 1891 the distillery was bought by Duncan MacCallum one of Cambeltown’s most famous whisky barons. MacCallum had the distillery refitted and when he sold it to West Highland Distilleries in 1919 it was reckoned to be the most modern and efficient malt distillery in Scotland.
Since then the distillery has changed hands several times and has even undergone a name change to Glen Scotia under which name the whisky is now sold, although it is Speyside and not Cambeltown malts that traditionally add the Glen prefix. The distillery is currently owned by Glen Catrine Bonded Warehouse Ltd who also own the Loch Lomond distillery at Balloch. Although it gives the outward appearance of gentle decay it does operate for a few months each year under the guidance of J M Mitchell & Co of Springbank.
However the Scotia distillery does have one macabre memorial to the end of the golden days of Cambeltown whisky. Late a night the tread of steady footsteps can be heard as the ghost of Duncan MacCallum makes his rounds for it was MacCallum who the day before Christmas Eve 1930 drowned himself in the Crosshill Loch above the town which provides the source of water used by all the legal distilleries, past and present.