IT is a historic age statement.

More than four hundred years ago, distilling, officially at least, began in the Kintyre Peninsula, and has since filled many a glass, vivified a gathering, and even been immortalised in song.

Campbeltown was once known as the whisky capital of the world, and once boasted more than 30 distilleries - and now a new campaign, backed by local MPs, is hoping to underline its history, present and potential.

The chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Scotch Whisky, Brendan O’Hara, the MP for Argyll and Bute, is to lodge an Early Day Motion to commend a new campaign to promote Campbeltown as the “whiskiest place in the world”.

The campaign is hoping to highlight the historic links between the area and Scotland’s most famous drink, and “promote Campbeltown as Scotland’s fifth official malt producing region.”

The Early Day Motion asks that “this House commends the campaign led by the Glen Scotia Distillery in Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute, to promote their home town as being the whiskiest place in the world; acknowledges that Campbeltown, which once boasted no fewer than 30 legal distilleries in the 1800s and was known in the Victorian era as Capital of Scotch, has played a hugely significant part in the history and development of whisky distilling in Scotland”.

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The area has, of course, an ancient history: Campbeltown or Lochhead as it was earlier known, was the ancient seat of the Scottish Parliament set up by King Fergus in 503AD.

The first licence to produce ‘aqua vitae’ in the area was granted in 1609, and with a ready source of local barley ‘bere’, peat for drying the malted barley and fresh water, the area was known as a centre of whisky production through the late 18th century and the first years of the 19th century.

By 1851, Campbeltown, which had access to a growing market in the rest of the UK, as well as further afield in growing markets across the globe, and had so many distilleries that it was was able to reasonably call itself the whisky capital of the world, and was sometimes referred to as Whiskyopolis and Spiritsville.

Today, there are three distilleries - Springbank, Glen Scotia and Glengyle/Kilkerran, with Glen Scotia named best distillery in Campbeltown in 2017.

The new Motion congratulates Glen Scotia manager Iain McAllister on helping to raise awareness of the importance of Campbeltown to Scotland’s whisky heritage.

The link between the area and the drink is famously celebrated in song, notably Campbeltown Loch, with a version by Andy Stewart in the 1960s with the lines ‘Campbeltown Loch/I wish you were whisky’.

It was also known, for a time, for its illicit stills.

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The Glen Scotia website notes that the Armour family, a firm of local plumbers and coppersmiths, who arrived in Campbeltown in 1798 was key in this. Robert Armour’s coppersmith business, established in 1811, was the “perfect cover for the manufacture of 4 part illicit stills.”

Armour kept detailed records in his Still Book up until 1817, with a cluster of stills around the town and further along the peninsula.

Brendan O’ Hara MP, said: “As the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Scotch Whisky, as well as being the MP for Argyll & Bute, I never miss an opportunity promote the work of our wonderful local distilleries, including Glen Scotia which I was lucky enough to visit last year.

“Increasingly whisky tourism is a key part of any distillery business and Glen Scotia’s initiative in positioning Campbeltown as the whiskiest place in the world, is an excellent idea and I wish their campaign all the success in the world in attracting people both to the distillery and the town.”

Iain McAlister, distillery manager, said: “It’s highly rewarding to be recognised in this way and it is great to see that the parliamentary motion has been joined by other MPs from around the UK – it’s quite an achievement for Campbeltown, which is the most remote mainland town in Scotland.

“Research suggests that Campbeltown was the predominant Scotch whisky for almost 100 years and we think it is important to highlight the significant contribution that the town, Scotland’s smallest and most remote official malt-producing region, continues to make to this day.”

A dozen MPS have thus far signed the motion, which was tabled on 17 June.

The whisky industry is worth more than £5bn to the Scottish economy.