GREENOCK (gren'ok), municipal burgh and seaport, Ren frewshire, Scotland, on the S. shore of the Firth of Clyde, 23 m. W. by N. of Glasgow by the L.M.S.R. (f our stations), 21 m. by the river and firth. Pop. (1931) 78,948. The town has a water front age of nearly 4 m. and rises gradually to the hills behind the town in which are situated, about 3 m. distant, Loch Thom and Loch Gryfe, sources of water supply for domestic use and for power. The streets are laid out on the comparatively level tract behind the firth, the older thoroughfares and buildings lying in the centre. The west end contains a fine esplanade, II,. m. long, running from Prince's pier to Ft. Matilda. The bay is protected by a sandbank that ends here, and is hence known as the Tail of the Bank. The fairway between this bank, which begins to the west of Dumbarton, and the southern shore constitutes the safest anchorage in the upper firth. Electric tramways connect with Port Glasgow on the east and Gourock on the west. The annual rainfall amounts to 64 in. and Greenock thus has the reputation of being the wettest town in Scotland.
Modern public buildings include the municipal buildings; the custom house on the old steamboat quay; the county buildings; and the Watt Institution, founded in 1837 by a son of the famous engineer, James Watt, and containing the public library, the Watt scientific library and the marble statue of James Watt by Sir Francis Chantrey. Adjoining the latter are the museum and lecture hall, the gift of James McLean, opened in 1876. The schools include the Greenock academy for secondary education. The old North Kirk (1591), with its pre-Raphaelite windows, has been moved to Seafield to allow of the extension of the ship building yards. A large cemetery in the south-western district contains the tomb of Burns' "Highland Mary," removed from the North Kirk graveyard. The parks and open spaces include Wellington park, Well park in the heart of the town (these were the gift of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart), Whin hill, and Lady Alice and Lady Octavia parks.
Greenock is under a town council with provost and bailies. It is a parliamentary burgh, represented by one member. The staple industries are shipbuilding and sugar refining (1765). Greenock-built vessels have always been esteemed, and many Cunard, P. & O. and other liners have been constructed in the yards. Other industries include the manufacture of engines, marine and otherwise ; the making of sailcloth, ropes, paper, woollen and worsted goods, and general engineering, and there are distilleries, an aluminium factory, a flax-spinning mill, and a torpedo factory. Ships and machinery are the chief exports and raw sugar the chief import. The seal and whale fisheries, once vigorously prosecuted, are extinct, but the fishing-fleets are con siderable. The first harbour (finished in 171o) has been period ically added to and improved, and there are now seven tidal harbours, Garvel graving dock and other dry docks, and an "always afloat" dock, the entrances to which are closed by caissons to keep in 32 ft. of water at low tide. The quay walls are over 3 m. in length. The large Princess pier is a centre for passenger traffic on the Clyde, and to and from English and Scottish ports.
In the early 17th century Greenock was a fishing village of one row of thatched cottages. In 1635 it was erected by Charles I. into a burgh of barony under a charter granted Shaw, the government being administered by a baron-bailie, or magis trate, appointed by the superior. Its commercial prosperity re ceived an enormous impetus from the Treaty of Union (1707 ), under which trade with America and the West Indies rapidly developed. The American War of Independence suspended pro gress for a brief interval, but revival set in in 1783, and within the following seven years shipping trebled in amount. Meanwhile Sir John Shaw by charter (dated 1741 and 1751) had empowered the householders to elect a council of nine members, which proved to be the most liberal constitution of any Scots burgh prior to the Reform act of 1832, when Greenock was raised to the status of a parliamentary burgh with the right to return one member to parliament. Greenock was the birthplace of James Watt and Dr. John Caird (182o-1898), principal of Glasgow University. Rob Roy is said to have raided the town in 1715.