Campbeltown Loch

Campbeltown Loch
Campbeltown Loch
Ceann Loch Chille Chiarain (Scottish Gaelic)
	Trench Point, Campbeltown Loch, Kintyre. - geograph.org.uk - 61193
	Campbeltown Loch
Location	Kintyre peninsula, Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
Coordinates	55°25′35″N 5°33′54″W / 55.426383°N 5.5650215°W, grid reference NR 74519 20503
Type	Sea Loch
Basin countries	Scotland, United Kingdom
Surface elevation	Sea Level
Frozen	No

Campbeltown Loch (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Chille Chiarain) is a small sea loch near the south of the Kintyre Peninsula facing eastwards towards the Firth of Clyde. The town of Campbeltown, from which it takes its name, is located at its head. The island of Davaar is located in the loch, and can be reach by foot along a natural shingle causeway at low tide. Oddly, while in English the Loch takes its name from Campbeltown, in Gaelic, Campbeltown takes its name from the loch - "Ceann Loch Chille Chiarain".

English raid of 1558[edit]

In October 1558, the English raided "Loch Kilkerran" because of the activities of the Clan MacDonald in Ireland. The Earl of Sussex sailed from Dublin in the Mary Willoughby with a small fleet. They burnt farms and houses including Saddell, a castle of James MacDonald of Dunyvaig and Glynnes (died 1565), and then marched south to burn Dunaverty and Machrimore. He then burnt farms on Arran, Bute, and Cumbrae.^[1]

The song[edit]

Campbeltown Loch with Davaar Island beyond and a grassy meadow in the foreground

The loch is immortalised in the folk song of the same name, repopularized by Andy Stewart in the 1960s. In the song (see below) the writer Alan Cameron expresses his desire that the loch be full of whisky. The basis of that ballad is that Campbeltown was originally a centre of whisky distilling but that the price of whisky in Campbeltown itself was too high.^[2]

Chorus:

Oh! Campbeltown Loch, Ah wish ye were whisky!

Campbeltown Loch, Och Aye!

Campbeltown Loch, I wish ye were whisky!

Ah wid drink ye dry.

Now Campbeltown Loch is a beautiful place,

But the price of the whisky is grim.

How nice it would be if the whisky was free

And the Loch was filled up to the brim.

I'd buy a yacht with the money I've got

And I'd anchor it out in the bay.

If I wanted a nip I'd go in for a dip

I'd be swimmin' by night and by day.

We'd have a gathering of the clans

They'd come from near and far

I can see them grin as they're wading in

And shouting "Slàinte mhath!".

But what if the boat should overturn

And drowned in the whisky was I?

You'd hear me shout, you'd hear me call out

"What a wonderful way to die !"

But what's this I see, ochone for me

It's a vision to make your blood freeze.

It's the police afloat in a dirty great boat

And they're shouting: "Time, gentlemen, please!"

Campbeltown Loch is sung to a march written for the bagpipes, The Glendaruel Highlanders.

References[edit]

^ C. S. Knighton & David Loades, Navy of Edward VI and Mary I (Navy Records Society, 2011), pp. 385-9.
^ "Andy stewart – Campbeltown loch".

External links[edit]

Map sources for Campbeltown Loch

[1] C. S. Knighton & David Loades, Navy of Edward VI and Mary I (Navy Records Society, 2011), pp. 385-9.

[2] "Andy stewart – Campbeltown loch".

[1]

[2]