Note

Date 6 June 2017

Event ID 1022731

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1022731

The harbour of Port Glasgow was built in 1668 as the deep water port for Glasgow, prior to a deep water channel to the city being created in the 18th century. At the same time, a new town was established beside the village of Newark. This new harbour, which is depicted on Roy’s Military Map of Scotland (1747-55), comprised two breakwaters extending NE from the shore and arcing to form a narrow entrance on the NE. The Great Reform Map of Port Glasgow (1832) shows that by that time two piers had been built extending from its SE side into the middle of the harbour, though only the SE one of these survived long enough to be depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Renfrewshire 1864, Sheet II). The 1832 map also shows that by that time the foreshore to the NW of the harbour had been reclaimed and was then occupied by ‘Mess’rs Scott’s Ship building Yard’. With the growth of nearby Greenock and its harbours, improved navigation of the Clyde, and problems with silting within the harbour at Port Glasgow, trade declined. By 1931 the West Harbour had been partly filled in, a task that was completed in 1936, when a park was created on the site. The eastern part of the harbour was filled in the late 1960s when the main road (A8) was improved and the park enlarged. All that now remains visible of the harbour are the breakwaters on either side of its entrance and waterfront quays on Mirren’s Shore to the NW.

Information from HES, Survey and Recording (AKK) 2 April 2017.