CAMPBELTOWN'S QUAYS,

COAL MINING, COAL CANAL,

SHIPS and SAILING BOATS
Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a little girl called Elizabeth Tollemache. She was born in England about
1660 and would have been around five or six years old when London was struck by The Great Plague and then by The
Great Fire.

Elizabeth, one of eleven children, was the daughter of Sir Lionel Tollemache of Helmington in Suffolk and, although
born in England, she was almost certainly brought up in Scotland by her mother Elizabeth Mornay, Countess of
Dysart, who, on the death of her husband Lionel, remarried the notorious Duke of Lauderdale.

Untouched by her step-father’s ways, young Elizabeth developed, despite some faults, into a generally decent,
reputable and moral young woman and, despite being no particular beauty, she married Lord Lorne, the eldest son of
the 9th Earl of Argyll, in 1678.

Elizabeth’s step-father, Lauderdale, took good care of her marriage contract, duly signed too by the King,
conveying to Elizabeth most of the Argyll estates in Kintyre as jointure. The contract also directed that a suitable
house was to be built in Kintyre for Elizabeth and thus Limecraigs, at Campbeltown, was built.

Life was by no means uneventful for Elizabeth. Her father-in-law, the Earl of Argyll, was to be imprisoned in
Edinburgh Castle. With the help of his step- daughter, Lady Sophia Lindsay, he managed to escape to Holland where
his father, the Marquis of Argyll, had purchased a small estate for refuge in times of trouble. The Earl was outlawed,
his estates confiscated and Boyle of Kelburne placed in charge of the Kintyre part of the estates.

Lord Lorne, Elizabeth Tollemache’s husband, then living in London, protested his own loyalty to the King and was
eventually granted a pension of £1250 a year out of the Argyll estates.

Four years later, in 1685, the Earl of Argyll made his unsuccessful attempt to overthrow King James II and ended up
being executed in Edinburgh. Lord Lorne, still living in London, again protested his own loyalty to King James but
was alarmed to find his pension now but £800.

With the shadow of the scaffold looming across his path, Elizabeth’s husband made tracks for Holland where he was
hospitably received by William of Orange and his wife, Mary. It is reasonable to suppose that Elizabeth and the
children too accompanied him as they might well have become King James’ hostages had they stayed behind.

In 1688, Lord Lorne was one of the exiles who accompanied William and Mary when they successfully invaded
England and, when they took the throne, Lorne successfully claimed and took possession of the honours and estates
of the Argylls.

In 1701, Lorne was created 1st Duke of Argyll and Elizabeth, no doubt to her great satisfaction, was created Duchess
of Argyll.

The Arms of The Royal Burgh of Campbeltown, itself but then a year old, too were drawn to include the arms of
Elizabeth’s own family, the Tollemache’s, in the fourth quarter of the shield which shows a black “fret”, a geometrical
device, on a white ground.

With the return of worldly prosperity, domestic troubles quickly ensued between Elizabeth and her husband and they
separated. Elizabeth was an imperious, quick-tempered woman and her husband fond of gambling and horse-racing.
Trouble too was bound to increase when he further installed a young lady in his house at Chirton in Northumberland,
where he died in 1703. Elizabeth, now widowed, began to involve herself in local affairs in Kintyre.

Campbeltown was the centre and seaport of a rich agricultural district and even in these times had a developing export -
import trade. The quay, a small stone construction was, in these days, where Mafeking Place now stands - this, of
course, was long before the land at the head of Campbeltown Loch was reclaimed from the sea.

In 1712, the very year that Thomas Newcomen and Thomas Savery’s first practical working atmospheric steam engine
began working in coal mines and a full hundred years before Henry Bell’s “Comet” appeared, Elizabeth advised the
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Town Council that she had agreed with one John Cheddison, an Ayr mason, to build a new commercial quay opposite
Gortnaquocher, on the shore of Campbeltown Loch but, “chronically hard up”, Elizabeth was not able to follow
through.

Elizabeth, whose income from the Kintyre estates was considerable and whose establishment at Limecraigs in keeping
with her position, complained frequently of her ‘poverty’ and the unfairness of having to provide for and keep her
nieces, the daughters of her brother-in-law, Lord Charles Campbell, who were both to marry Campbeltown Collectors
of Customs, one a Fraser of Strichen and the other Farquarson of Finzean, all buried in Kilkerran.

Elizabeth’s own daughter, Lady Anne, married the Earl of Bute and her sons, John and Archibald, were to be
successively Dukes of Argyll but left no male heirs. The 4th Duke of Argyll, a cousin, was not related to Elizabeth,
the Limecraigs Duchess.

Even though Elizabeth had been unable herself to fund the construction of a new quay, she continued to pursue the
matter with the Town Council and, in 1715, proposed that a weekly packet service should be established to and from
Glasgow - she even offered, despite her ongoing expenses and ‘poverty’, to bear one-third of any losses that might
be incurred in operating the service !

Eventually, in 1722, a few enterprising individuals began the construction of what we know today as The Old Quay.
Like the Duchess, they soon found out that the costs well quite beyond their own capabilities and, as Council Minutes
record, “to their considerable damage” and, the following year, the Council was asked to take over the construction
works.

Nothing much more happened till 1727 when the Council, realising the full benefits of a new commercial quay,
ordered every adult male to do two days’ forced labour per year on the building work, the alternative being a fine of
one shilling sterling. Every vessel, large and small, belonging to the town was also ordered to carry one cargo of
stones a year from the quarry to the quay or to pay a fine of ten Scots shillings per ton of their registered tonnage and the
fines collected were all devoted for the costs involved in building the new quay where work went on slowly but surely,
year after year.

In 1736, the year after his mother Elizabeth had been buried at the old Lowland Church, John, now the 2nd Duke of
Argyll, had prompted Alexander Campbell of Stonefield to meet the Town Council to begin a second quay, The New
Quay, opposite “The Kirk Roof” of the Old Gaelic Church, to form, with the still building Old Quay, “an enclosed
basin or harbour for the preservation and safety of ships loading and unloading thereat.”.

Work at The New Quay, begun in 1754, now proceeded along with that at The Old. Ten years later and work on the
two quays now nearing completion, the Town Council found themselves becoming involved in a long and protracted
dispute with the Laird of Saddell about landing rights in Campbeltown Loch.

The Town Council always claimed the exclusive right of exacting dues on all goods landed and shipped anywhere on
Campbeltown Loch, but that claim was never admitted by the Laird of Saddell who then owned Dalintober and now
set about building a quay there too !

Much to the disgust of Campbeltown’s Town Council, he too encouraged the landing and shipping of goods at
‘Maggie Bann’s Hole’, a pool on the shore, just below where St. Clair Terrace now stands.

It would not be until well on in the nineteenth century and only after prolonged and expensive litigation that
Campbeltown Town Council established, for all time coming, its exclusive right to levy dues on all goods landed or
shipped anywhere on the shores of Campbeltown Loch, from McCrinan’s Point - it being properly recorded as
‘McNinian’s Point’ in the old minutes - right round the shores to the Ottar Buoy.

Thus we find that all three of Campbeltown’s quays, The Old, The New and Dalintober, were completed in 1765 and
in that same year came one Charles MacDowall of Crichen, in Wigtonshire, to tenant the working of the coal mine, its
rights let to him by the Duke of Argyll.

Coal Mining
James IV had visited Kilkerran and Dunaverty in 1494 and shortly after, on April 24, 1498, had paid the sum of
eighteen Scots shillings to a “cole man” to see if there were any coals in the area. The King’s accounts also reveal that

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he paid a ‘colzar’, called Davidson, another eighteen Scots shillings to make tools and go to Kintyre in May that year
and too, four days later, had paid another three Scots shillings to a Dumbarton ‘colzar’ to follow on.

There can be little doubt that this sudden flurry of activity was in some way related to James IV’s Parliament meeting
too in Campbeltown that same year of 1498, just six years after Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America.

The first known coal workings were on the ridge to the south of Drumlemble village, near Torchoillean, their
institution long hidden in the mists of time and long before James IV’s interests were aroused. Seemingly, nothing
more is on record till 1633 when Lord Kintyre, James Campbell, reserved his own interests in ‘all mines, minerals,
coals and coal heughs’ in the area.

Certainly coal was being mined by 1670, coal carriers being mentioned in the town’s baptismal registers and in 1678 the
farm of Ballygreggan was specially ‘parked for colliers’ horses’ reflecting the amount of activity in the trade by then.
The coal pits, referred to then as heughs, were at that time, as too the nearby salt pans, two acres at Knockantimore,
jointly tenanted by John Campbell, Chamberlain to the Earl of Argyll and by Alexander Forester of Knockrioch, with
the tenancy rents costing them £1,333.6s 8d Scots per year

A survey of the coal workings was carried out in the summer of 1745 and it suggested the need for building a windmill
or steam pump to keep the mine workings clear of ‘running sand’ but then came the outbreak of the 1745 rebellion.
More surveys were carried out in 1747 and again in 1752 when it was found that there were at least two considerable
coal seams running out and under Machrihanish Bay.

The arrival in 1765 of Charles MacDowall of Crichen, in Wigtonshire, the coal workings’ new tenant, just as
Campbeltown’s new harbour was completed, led to the sinking of a new shaft, the Skeyloch Pit, on the march
between East and West Drumlemble Farms, beside Loch Sanish.

Coal output was soon increased but, there wasn’t a proper road, just a horse track, to get the coal to the new harbour
and the real profits lay in exporting for none of the Ayrshire coal ports could guarantee shipments in winter storms.

The days of the supply of small coals to the nearby salt pans were numbered too. There, winter working was well nigh
impossible as the rain constantly diluted the brine. The salt pans would be shut down in the 1770’s, a consequence of
the suspension of a subsidy-bounty on fish landings. Salt was taxed in these days and Customs officers closely
monitored its production.

In 1771, James Watt had undertaken a survey of routes for a canal across the isthmus at Tarbert - more of that later -
and Charles MacDowall too saw that his problems might be solved by building a canal. In 1773, Watt duly arrived to
carry out his survey in Campbeltown.

The Campbeltown Coal Canal

From the Skeyloch Pit Head, the three-mile long canal route ran roughly east-north-east, parallel and about a quarter
of a mile north of today’s Machrihanish - Campbeltown road, the tow path being on its south bank. South of
Bleachfield, the rest of the route took the form of a double curve.

First, a gentle curve right and east, a crossing at the apex of Lintmill, over Chiscan Water. Then turning north-east
and on to a larger loop in the opposite direction to the left and north, between East Backs and Moy. Now the route
curved east and then south-east, to circumvent Calton Hill, before reaching Campbeltown from Hillside, south of
Mill Lade and then into its terminus, close to where the town’s gas works would be built in 1830/1831.

To provide water for the canal, Killypole Loch, near High Tirfergus, was enlarged and banked, the water being led
into Rhudal Burn and thence to the canal near West Drumlemble Farm.

A notable feature of the canal, for the Laggan is not quite flat, was the lack of any need for locks - Watt too, as will
be reported later, had also carefully planned no locks for the Tarbert Canal either, thus cutting capital and operating
costs. Three small, flat-bottomed barges, carrying some 40 cartloads - carts carried about ¼ ton - between them, were
to be the only vessels that would ever sailed on the canal. Work on the canal eventually began in 1783.

Almost immediately, Campbeltown’s Town Council applied for an interdict against Charles MacDowall for laying the
canal route so close to the Mill Dam! The Council lost and the canal was eventually completed sometime in the late
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summer or early autumn of 1791 and by the end of the century was reckoned to be carrying some 900 tons of coal a
week, 4,500 tons a year.

The main problem with the canal was the tendency for soil to slip from its banks and too it was a constant battle to
keep it clear from weeds. By 1856 it had been almost abandoned despite the fact that Campbeltown was using nearly
1,700 tons of coal every week, 600 tons of it going to the flourishing distilleries. MacDowall had died on September
11, 1791, the canal nearly about to open.

Ships and Sailing Boats

A ship can carry a boat but a boat can’t carry a ship !

The term ship refers generally, in these days, to a vessel with three masts and square sails, often being of then some
considerable size, from 1,000 to 1,500 tons.

Next in size, the brig, a two-masted vessel with square sails, some were fairly large, being of some 400 to 800 tons, but
many, as in the case of local coastal vessels, were much smaller, upwards of 60 tons. Then comes a miscellany of
smaller vessels, none of them with square sails.

Schooners, with two or more masts, the after mast, the main-mast - not mizen-mast and it taller than the fore-mast.
Schooners often had very tall masts, well raked, angled sternwards and they were, in tonnage and size, from as little as 60
tons upwards.

Luggers, not common in Scottish waters, could have up to three masts and a bowsprit, their masts carrying but a single
lugsail. Their size usually of some six to forty tons.

Next, the yawl, two-masted, with the after mizen-mast being mounted aft of the rudder-post - the ketch, also two-
masted, has the mizen-mast mounted forward of the rudder-post. Both yawl and ketch, in these days, had bowsprits and
were gaff-rigged - Nearly all the modern sailing yachts of today are ‘Bermudan-rigged’ and have neither gaff-mainsails, nor
bowsprits. Yawls and ketches ranged upwards in size from 6 to over 100 tons.

Sloops and Smacks were all single-masted, gaff-rigged vessels, all with bowsprits and of anything up to 100 tons in size.
The term cutter applies those which had extended bowsprits enabling them to carry an additional outer jib-sail.

Over the years, indeed centuries, there have been many changes to the rules and formula for measuring a ship’s
‘tonnage’. The ‘Formula of 1773’ , in use until 1835, calculated as (Length - 60% Breadth) x Breadth x ½ Breadth, divided by
94 to give the registered tonnage.

A little brig, of just 54-feet in length, by 18-feet 7-inches beam, was measured as 78½ ‘registered’ tons but, for Lloyds’
insurance purposes, was listed as being potentially of 85 tons. The same ship, for port dues, was just 70 tons !

Campbeltown had risen, from being a petty fishing port, to a fairly flourishing state in little less than thirty years.
Whereas, in 1744, only two or three small vessels belonged to the port, there were seventy-eight vessels of between
twenty and eighty tons, crewed by some eight hundred fishermen and by 1772 the population of the town numbered
some seven thousand inhabitants.

Around 1762, Campbeltown displaced Stranraer as the favoured ‘bounty port’ for the west coast herring fishery and
became the main rendezvous for the the herring ‘busses’.

Most of the Campbeltown-based sloops and smacks, which were around 40 tons in size, acted as herring ‘busses’ and as
many as two hundred and sixty busses had been gathered together in Campbeltown at the same time. The herring
industry peaked in 1765 and collapsed in 1769 when the first bounty scheme, introduced in 1750, was suspended.

At other times the Campbeltown boats carried cargo and passengers and typical of those were the 50-to-60-ton sloops
(and their masters) “Brothers” (James Harvey), “James” (James Henry), “Johnstone” (William Alexander), “Lady Charlotte”
(Neil McCulaskey), “Nelly & Ann” (Andrew Miller) and the 80-ton brig “Ann” (John Orr) which sailed to Ayr.

In Ayr, on one day alone in June 1775, five boats arrived with passengers from Campbeltown and, in season,
potatoes and beans were also landed at Ayr. Sometimes carts and ploughs were brought back and occasionally sheep
and lambs for breeding , stock that may well have fuelled the early clearances.
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