CAMPBELTOWN is a pleasant place in summer for those who rejoice
in a boundless sea, plenty of boating, fishing and golfing. Before
visiting Lochead we drove out to the Salt Pang five miles distant,
a favourite resort of the Campbeltonians who visit it in crowds
during the summer months, and which possesses a golfing ground,
said to be the best and most extensive in Scotland. At the
time of our visit a party of Oxford students were playing a match with
the Club, among whom we described many of our friends the Distillers who
are noted champions at the game. We returned home very unwillingly,
being loth to leave the animating scene, passing en our way many familiar
races bound for the spot we had left behind. On reaching the Hotel we
found our luncheon waiting, and all three of us fell to with a hearty good
wilt. We were comfortably entertained at the White Hart during our
stay, and bath the landlord and his good wife did everything in their power
to render our visit bath comfortable and agreeable. Their horses and traps
were the best we had used during our tour, and would he a credit to any
city hiring establishment. After our meal, we walked to Lochead, another of
the few old-fashioned Distilleries, remnants of the romantic smuggling days.
It is built on the banks of the Lochead Burn and close to the Kinloch Park,
and was there erected in 1824. As you enter the enclosure you observe an
air of antiquity round and about you. There is a small swift stream running
through the works into the sea, and a large bum outside. What was once a
cluster of old houses and an ancient mill, with doubtless several illicit stills,
IS now a licensed Distillery; and time bas indeed dealt leniently with its old stone
watts and fences. The establishment bas now absorbed the whole four corners
of a block royering two and a half acres of ground.
The four old-fashionedBarley Lofts, or as they used to call them Granaries,
are situated at the south-east end of the work. There are four Malt Floors with
three Steeps; two Kilns, with the patent German tile flooring, where peat only
IS .used In the drying, good Malt Stores and Mill Room, and the Mash Tun is
said to be the largest in Campbeltown. There is also a ten horse power steam
engine, a very large Boiler, steam pump, eight Washbacks each holding 8,000
gallons, a Wash Charger and two Pot Stills heated by steam holding 3,300 and
Ih800 gallons respectively; two Receivers each containing 1,600 gallons, and
three Heaters. The Coolers are in the open, and stretch right across the bum
t e~e 1S also a Morton's refrigerator. Adjoining the Granaries there is a
capital Spirit Store with a Vat of 2,000 gallons capacity. There are also five
warehouses capable of stowing some 3,000 casks.
The Whisky made here is Campbeltown Malt, and finds a market chiefly in
Glasgow. The annual output is 111,000 gallons.
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