I am so happy we visited Campbeltown, located down the Kintyre peninsula. There is one road that heads in the right direction and the Glasgow to Kennacraig 926 bus ends in Campbeltown. This means there should be no reason to pass up Springbank, Glangyle or Glan Scotia Distilleries because the bus to the Islay Ferry also goes to Campbeltown.
The Flight from Glasgow
That being said, we didn’t actually take the bus. We flew from Islay on the morning flight to Glasgow. The flight was 9:15am and I called to arrange for a taxi. The driver asked what time we wanted to get picked up and I said 7:45am which would get us to the airport a little more than an hour before take off. Or as they say in Switzerland, “five quarters early.” The taxi driver on the telephone replied, “oooh, that’s a wee bit early. How about I pick you up at 8am instead?” I almost burst out laughing at the thought of a taxi driver negotiating their pick-up time. But he knew best, and we were the first people at the airport despite the 8am pick-up. Pictured here with our negotiating taxi driver.
The weather was nice and the so was the flight. We spent the day in Glasgow antique shopping and eating homemade mutton pie at The Pot Still Pub. Eventually, we returned to the Glasgow airport for the evening flight to Campbeltown.
I have written about the Glasgow airport and this is the leg of our trip where we met Doris. Doris is a retired Campbeltown native who uses Loganair to Glasgow for medical purposes. On this day, she was behind schedule which put all of us at the same boarding gate starting line. Mark and I were waiting for the 30 minute gate announcement at the second duty free shop. At 29 minutes before our scheduled flight, Mark and I began walking the 10 minute distance to the gate. In doing so we passed an older woman, Doris, who was walking slow.
Mark and I stopped at a water station to fill our water bottles and Doris passed us. When we finished filling our bottles, we began walking and passed Doris. At some point, I stopped into the Men’s Room which allowed Doris to pass us again.
By the time we caught Doris for the third time, it was pretty clear that she was headed to our gate. This is when we started to chat. Once we discovered that Doris was, in fact, on our flight, we introduced ourselves with a laugh and asked if we could carry her luggage for her. Mark took her bag and I walked ahead when the Campbeltown flight was announced over the intercom. Looking back, the intercom announcement was for Doris telling her to come to the gate. Humorously, no announcement was made for Mark or me.
When I got to the gate, the co-pilot was making final checks of the airplane. This was a small propeller plane for 15 people and there was no flight crew. I told the person at the gate that Doris was making her way accompanied by Mark. The response I got was, “who are you? And who is this Mark? Neither of you are on this flight.” That’s when the humor stopped for a small bit of time while Mark and my flight reservations were located. Remember, we have boarding passes, these passes have already been electronically approved at security and our assigned seats were in the Emergency Row. Doris and Mark arrived and Doris was ushered toward the plane. After another minute, Mark and I were allowed to board as well. A small bit of drama to match our good Samaritan efforts with Doris.
The flight was exciting because the weather was mostly clear and we were flying at about 10,000 ft. This altitude gave us the thrill of flying which is mostly lost in large commercial jets. Because there were only 3 seats per row and we were in the Emergency row, Mark and I both got window seats. And like little kids, we took photos and video of the entire flight. There was no cockpit door – no crew means that the co-pilot is in charge of the passengers. Without a door, we were able to look out the windshield, see the flight instruments and watch the pilots turn knobs and fly the plane. I highly recommend flying at least once during a trip like this one.
When we landed 35 minutes later, we discovered that the airport is 5 miles outside of Campbeltown and we did not have a taxi waiting for us. Doris asked how we were getting into town and offered to give us a ride. Absolutely we said yes and piled all of our gear and ourselves into her compact automobile. Doris was giddy with having new friends to talk with and at one point she drove off the road. Mark was in the front seat and the slight excursion into the grass did not give him warm feelings. From then on, Mark only talked during straight road segments.
The airport boarders the Machrihanish Golf Club and if we had more time, this looked like a pretty great golf course.
“The Machrihanish Golf Club is a classic Scottish links course situated in Machrihanish at the southern tip of the Mull of Kintyre. The main course, with views of the western seaboard including the Paps of Jura and Ireland, was ranked the No. 39 course outside of the United States by Golf Digest in 2005. In particular, the first hole is often rated as one of the best opening holes in the world.”
– Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machrihanish_Golf_Club)
Campbeltown
Doris drove us into town and around town. She drove us along the harbor and past the cinema. Then up the main street and to our AirBnB address. She parked and followed us to the gate to make sure we were settled. As it turned out, our apartment was basically across the street from the Spingbank Distillery. Unfortunately, we could not settle in yet. Our instructions for opening the gate did not work and the location of the apartment key was empty. Mark and Doris talked a while more while I called our apartment host, Peter.
Peter had forgotten that we were arriving this day. Luckily, he was at a nearby pub setting up for a colleague’s birthday dinner. As he walked to the apartment, we hugged, thanked and said goodbye to Doris. Peter arrived a minute later with keys and showed us to the apartment we would be staying for the next two days. He excused himself to return to the party set-up and we thought we would not see him again… that’s what we thought but Campbeltown is a small town.
It was now about 7pm and Mark and I were hungry. We set out for the Black Sheep Pub, which was part of the Royal Hotel of Campbeltown on the main square. Mark spots a few nice scotch selections and I spot some appetizing food choices. On the menu was an item called Haggis Nachos.
Haggis Nachos? That’s really too good to be true and they lived up to their name. In fact, we returned the next evening and ordered the haggis nachos again. The pub was filled and a table next to us had a big group with a lot of movement. Ordering drinks, going outside for smokes, talking with their friends on staff. Up and down, cheers and laughing. One of the members was French and he started a conversation with Mark. At some point, the name Mark’s was spoken out loud and another member of the group looked up and said Mark’s full name in a question. Turns out, this guy, who we had been anonymously watching, was our primary contact at Springbank and Cadenhead’s the next morning. Campbeltown is small. We laughed and formally introduced ourselves.
Shortly thereafter, we had finished our food and decided to move on to the next pub at the Ardshiel Hotel. Sure enough, another fantastic selection of scotches and food. As we entered the pub, a voice spoke out to us and it was Peter our AirBnB host with his birthday group. Peter is the local school’s Art teacher and his colleagues were all teachers. In joking fashion, I asked if the group consisted of the responsible adults of the community. The birthday woman responded with a smile, “yes, we are the town’s role models.”
After an hour of Mark taking photos of rare bottlings, we began to pack up. Peter leaned over and said he was headed to another pub called Feathers and that we should join him over there. Which is exactly what we did after a short walk through town. It turns out that Feathers was only a ½ block away from our apartment, unfortunately we got lost anyway. However, discovering the town at night is pretty nice.
Each pub along the way became less fancy and more ‘comfortable.’ The Feathers was most similar to the Lochindaal Hotel Pub in Port Charlette or the Ardview Inn in Port Ellen. The Feathers has two iconic features, a list of all the distilleries of Campbeltown in the 1800s and two boat bow mermaids flanking the bar. Peter must be a regular here because two of his portraits, as posted on his website, are the bartender and the guy at the end of the bar.
Over the next two days we had more time to explore the town and see some of the sights such as City Hall, the harbor, the World Wars Memorial and the Lorne & Lowland Church. The Glengyle Distillery used this church tower as their logo and our apartment was at a 90 degree angle facing the same tower.
A few other night spots in town include Fiddlers Inn for pool and sports watching. And finally, the Kilbrannan Bar to finish a respectable evening. We made the above mentioned circuit both evenings. Surprisingly, we found different scotches in each place.