The Kilkerran Gun Battery after its move to Kildalloig

CAMPBELTOWN'S KILKERRAN GUN BATTERY

On February 10, 1780, Campbeltown's Town Councillors felt fit to bestir themselves about the possible threats of attack
and invasion and the minute of a meeting held on that date reads "Having taken under consideration that at present the
Town of Campbeltown is in a defenceless situation should any of the French or American Privateers that so frequently
cruise in the neighbouring creeks and channells make any attempt to plunder or impose contributions upon the town and
that from the local situation of the Burrow it is very liable to be insulted by those Privateers and therefore the more
necessary to make application for a proper Military Force to defend such dangerous designs should they be attempted, it is
therefore the unanimous resolution of the Magistrates and Council to Represent this matter to His Grace The Duke of
Argyll and Request that he may be pleased to apply to Government for a sufficient Military Force and Liberty to erect
Batterys sufficient for the protection of the Burrow as well as a sufficient number of Cannon and quantity of ammunition
for those Batterys.

"For this purpose the Magistrates are hereby appointed a Committee with power to them to inform His Grace that the
Burrow shall be at the Expense of building the necessary Batterys for such Guns as shall be sent them which they hereby
bind and oblige themselves in the name of the Community to defray the said Committee being also full authorised to
Explain to his Grace every other particular relative to this application and the Force necessary to protect the Burrow."

The request was favourably received and on May 8, 1780 it was reported that "The Magistrates and Councillors having
presented to this meeting of Councill a letter from His Grace The Duke of Argyle reporting that the Board of Ordance
have agreed at his Graces request to allow Six Twelve or Eighteen Pounders for the Defence of Campbeltown and that the
Conditions upon which Guns and Stores have been hitherto sent by His Majesty's Orders for the Defence of Places on the
Sea Coast are that the Inhabitants shall erect Batterys or Platforms upon which the Guns are to be placed, Provide the
Houses for the safekeeping of the Stores which are sent with the Guns and furnish a proper proportion of Powder all at
their own expense and the Board observe another customary stipulation which is that the Guns and Stores cannot be sent
till information is given that these conditions are complied with and the Battery and Platforms are ready to receive the
Guns.

"The Magistrates and Council of Campbeltown actuated by a lively feeling of His Grace's Extensive Pattronage of the
Community beg leave to present to His Grace their most grateful return of thanks for his benevolent attention through the
various negociations of procuring aid from Government for the Safety and protection of the town . . . . .

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"In pursuance of these considerations and in order to relieve his Grace of his engagements for the town and to convey
information to the Ordnance Board of their readiness to submit to the above conditions prescribed to them the Magistrates
and Councill have unanimously agreed for themselves and in behalf of the community to erect and make fit for receiving
six twelve or eighteen pounders Batterys or platforms sufficient for the Temporary Defence of the Town and Harbour
against the predatory insults of the Enemy's Privateers".

The batteries were duly completed, the South Battery placed above the Red Quarry and another battery positioned at the
foot of Limecraigs Avenue, a 1795 plan showing the locations of these batteries.

A hundred and forty years earlier, when The Marquis of Argyll was preparing to defend his Kintyre lands against an
invasion by The Earl of Antrim during 'The Bishops Wars', he too had erected a battery overlooking the entrance to
Campbeltown Loch and its construction recalled in the names of The Trench and Fort Argyll, the late Colonel Mactaggart
understanding that the guns there remained till 1828, when they were returned to Leith Fort.

In May 1804, at the height of the Napoleonic invasion threat, a government survey to assess the country's power of
defence recorded that, in Argyllshire, there were 13,405 men aged between 17 and 55, 1,280 of them aleady in uniform
and another 10,989 men then prepared to enlist.

The invasion threat removed, Campbeltown's interest in drilling volunteers continued, though the volunteers were not
actually officially recognised until 1860.

At that date and under the auspices of Campbeltown's own Town Council, the volunteers were split into two companies,
these fully recognised officially by the government later that year.

The first of these companies, an infantry unit, The Argyll Highland Rifles, which became The 5th Volunteer Battalion of
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1881, eventually moved to the 1887-built Victoria Hall for their training nights
etc..

A Firing Exercise at Kilkerran

The second, an artillery company for coastal defence, The 1st Argyll and Bute Garrison Artillery (Volunteers), had their
headquarters in the St. John Street Drill Hall and their formation led to the addition of a second gun battery in 1870, they
manning the battery of sixty pound coastal defence guns at Kilkerran, that battery later moved to Kildaloig.

With the formation of The Territorial Army in 1908, the infantry unit became The 8th (Argyllshire) Battalion of The Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders' Territorial Army, the artillerymen becoming The Argyll Mountain Battery, using lighter,
more transportable, guns and in WWII became an anti-tank unit.
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