Campbeltown Library and Museum

The Library and Museum in Campbeltown is a Category A listed building on the shore of Campbeltown Loch in Argyll and Bute. The stone building fronts the bay for 28 metres and St John Street for 42 metres. It was designed by John James Burnet and opened in 1899 after a foundation stone laid by the 8th Duke of Argyll. A public holiday marked the laying of the stone and a steamer brought a thousand visitors from coastal towns. The donor, James MacAlister Hall, received the freedom of the burgh and gave £3,000 for upkeep and books. The building houses a library with space for ten thousand volumes, a ladies’ reading room, a general reading room, a museum and picture gallery, and a news room. A garden displays uncovered archaeological finds and a caretaker’s house stands on Shore Street. In 1991 the lantern cupola was lit from within, and in 1993 the museum lost its coin collection, guns, medals and a sword in a burglary. Inside the museum hangs a painting of Campbeltown Main Street by Archibald MacKinnon from 1886 and a seascape by William McTaggart. Artefacts include a Bronze Age jet necklace, urns from Glenramskill House and Dalaruan, and a bowl found in 1893. Outside, a two-thirds life-size bronze statue of Linda McCartney holding a lamb was installed in 2002.