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

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.

Campbeltown Shipbuilding Co

In 1877 Archibald MacEachern founded a shipyard at Trench Point, at the entrance to the Loch, on what had been 17th century earthworks. Campbeltown Shipbuilding Company Limited, with capital of £60,000, was formed in 1917. The yard closed in 1922, after building 115 ships. Campbeltown Shipyard Ltd, a subsidiary of Lithgows (1969) Ltd, opened on the same site in 1969 and built 101 fishing and other small boats until 1997. In 2009 a slipway, jetty and some buildings remained.

The song

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