Kilkerran (or Chila Cheieran in the Gaelic) is claimed to have been the site were the Irish missionary Saint Kieran preached in the 6th century, and he is believed to have been the first Christian missionary to the western region of Scotland. He is said to have dwelt in a nearby cave. The town of Kilkerran was named after the the saint, but its name changed to Campbeltown, after the Campbells of Argyll, to whom James V transferred it from the Macdonalds. James VI made it a Royal burgh, and built a castle there, but the Macdonalds destroyed it. There was also an old Kirk at Kilkerran as well, but only a small remanant of ruins remain near the cemetery.

The old Kirk remanants and cemetery are to the south of what is now Campbeltown, southest Kintyre.