Campbeltown

Campbeltown: Celtic cross

Campbeltown, small royal burgh (town) and seaport, Argyll and Bute council area, historic county of Argyllshire, western Scotland. Campbeltown is the main centre of the Peninsula of Kintyre, which is 40 miles (65 km) long and protrudes into the Atlantic. By sea it is 83 miles (134 km) southwest of Glasgow, and there is a direct air link from Campbeltown (Machrihanish) Airport, 4 miles (6 km) west of the town.

Campbeltown, originally known as Dalruadhain, was the seat of the kings of Dalriada. St. Ciaran (Kieran), one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, landed there in the 6th century, after which the site was renamed Kilkerran, afterward Kinlochkerran. Later James V transferred the territory from the MacDonalds to the Campbells of Argyll, who gave it their family name. No memorial of its antiquity has survived, but a finely sculptured granite Celtic cross (c. 1500) stands in the marketplace, and there are ruins of an old chapel. Campbeltown became a royal burgh in 1700. Its main industries today are tourism, clothing manufacture, food processing, and whisky distilling. Pop. (2001) 5,144.