Springbank’s response to this surging demand might seem a little eccentric. Overseen by the 92-year-old great-great grandson of Archibald Mitchell, who founded the distillery in 1828, Springbank has stuck to traditional production methods, where possible using the original equipment. Touring its Victorian buildings is like going to a museum. Tourists queue early to buy the small quantity of whisky put aside for the shop—Springbank refuses to sell online, believing, probably correctly, that the distillery outlet attracts visitors to the faded town.

Everything is done on site, from germinating the barley, which is left on a stone floor and turned every four hours by hand, to labelling. This is labour-intensive work: the distillery has a staff of 100, making it an important employer in a region that suffers from high unemployment.

In 2000 the owner of Springbank, J&A Mitchell, bought and then reopened Glengyle, a distillery next door that had closed down in 1925. But rather than using the purchase to crank up production, it spread it across two sites. Several months a year Springbank’s workers down tools and move to Glengyle to make whisky. The impression this creates—of rare malts that buyers would be lucky to get their hands on—works well. Prices for Springbank’s single malts have surged with demand. It hasn’t bothered with any advertising for several years.

Others want in. There are plans for a new distillery overlooking Campbeltown Loch. But growth may come from outside the town. The Campbeltown whisky region—one of five, along with Highland, Islay, Lowland and Speyside, as codified in the 2009 Scotch Whisky Regulations—extends a little way outside Campeltown itself. R&B Distillers, the owners of Isle of Raasay Distillery, in the Inner Hebrides, plan to turn a farm in nearby Machrihanish into an eco-friendly distillery.