Ardfern

Ardfern has a pub called The Galley Of Lorne it also has a café that recently opened (2020) and a village store (which previously had a post office).

There is evidence of habitation going back to pre-history. Contemporaries of St. Columba settled by 600 AD and the earliest church on the peninsula, Kilvaree, now a ruin, is 12th century or earlier.

After 1778, when most of the peninsula was in the ownership of the Campbells of Craignish, who had been the dominant local clan since the earliest recorded times around 1100, parcels of land were gradually sold off, and by 1850 most of the land was part of two estates; Lunga, purchased by the MacDougalls (of Lunga island), to the north and the Craignish estate to the south end of the peninsula. This division essentially remains the same today, though in 1983 a part of the Lunga estate was sold off to a developer to create Craobh Haven, a marina and village created in and around a natural harbour on the west side of the peninsula.

Until modern times farming was the main occupation and cattle from the off lying islands, Jura, Scarba, etc., were landed near Craignish point and driven along the peninsula to the mainland proper. Of the three inns that ‘supported’ the drovers only one, dating from the 17th or even 16th century and now called the Galley of Lorne, survives in Ardfern. Farming, together with a busy weaving industry and three mills, carried on during the first part of the twentieth century. During the 2nd World War, German U boats would come alongside the back of the island in the dark and take the wild goats as fresh meat for the crews.

The latter half of the twentieth century saw farming and traditional industry decline and the population fell by more than half. It now stands at more than 400. The current Laird of Lunga, Colin Lindsay-MacDougall, saw that for the community to survive, things must change. To re-vitalise the area, he created a yacht centre at Ardfern to attract the ever-increasing numbers of cruising yachtsmen on the west coast, re-opened and developed the old Inn (the Galley of Lorne), sold housing plots to attract people to the area, encouraged artists of all sorts and the trades-people necessary for a thriving community, to stay on his estate.

Ardfern today has a diverse and growing population. The school is thriving. The Yacht Centre, together with the new marina at Craobh Haven, harbours the largest fleet of cruising yachts on the west coast. Tourism and related businesses bring much income to the village, but there are many other small enterprises ; artists, musicians, sculptors, craftsmen and women, horticulturalists, filmmakers, writers, computer based businesses, some of which are recognised internationally, and mail order businesses. There are plumbers, stonemasons, builders, joiners, furniture-makers, gardeners and horticulturists, woodworkers, electricians and many more. Ardfern is an isolated community, 16 miles (26 km) from the nearest small town, Lochgilphead (pop circa 3,000), which is the administrative centre of Argyll & Bute.

In the last ten years or so more houses have been built, bringing a wider group of people to the village. Many commute to Oban or Lochgilphead, or even further afield.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ardfern.

• www.craignish.info
• http://www.craignishvillagehall.org.uk