CAMPBELTOWN

Once the 'whisky capital' of Scotland, with no fewer than 21 working distilleries during the 1880s, Campbeltown lies near the southern tip of the remote Kintyre peninsula in Argyllshire.

When Campbeltown was at its distilling height, stylistically, its whiskies tended to be big-bodied, heavy, peaty beasts, eventually even referred to as 'stinking fish' when quantity was sacrificed for quality during the 1920s. Today, Campbeltown's whisky-making industry is a shadow of its former self, with just Springbank, Glen Scotia and Glengyle in operation, though Springbank remains a classic malt with a worldwide reputation for excellence. Distilling recommenced at Glengyle in 2004, after almost eight decades of silence, and the Scotch Whisky Association subsequently reinstated Campbeltown as a separate whisky region, having previously included its whiskies in the Highland category for a number of years.

• < Prev
• Next >