WHISKYOPOLIS

Aim

Publication of forthcoming book on Campbeltown's Whisky Industry

WHISKYOPOLIS - The Rise, Fall and Resurgence of Campbeltown's Whisky Industry

This is a complete re-write of my 2005 book The Distilleries of Campbeltown, drawing on a much wider array of sources and material. The book tells the story of a small burgh, never more than 10,000 inhabitants, that was so flooded with distilleries that it gained the nickname Whiskyopolis.

Just why were there so many distilleries, and why did so many close? This new book sets out to find out the answers...

Chapters cover the start of the industrial era in the early 1800s through expansion and industry collapse, the Great War and then the demise of the Campbeltown distilleries in the 1920s. The end of the book looks at how Campbeltown clung on to its status as a whisky region through dogged determination through to its lofty status today. This has taken almost a year of research and writing and has driven me to drink... Campbeltown malt whisky naturally.

The book, which will likely be shipped in May, will be hardback and approximately 300 pages.

I will be attending the Speyside Whisky Festival - hosting tastings at Whisky Brother in Dufftown - and the Campbeltown Whisky Festival (both in May). Any books ordered can be collected at either of those festivals if more convenient.

This project successfully funded on 10th April 2025