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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 reached 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".
The loch is immortalized
in the folk song of the same name, re-popularized 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
center of whisky distilling but that the price of whisky in
Campbeltown itself was too high.
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!"
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