Greenock, East India Harbour, Graving Docks

Running from May 2016 to September 2017 and part of the Canmore Mapping Programme, Yard by Yard was an area-focused, desk-based project that tested the Defining Scotland’s Places (DSP) methodology in an area for which the records in the NRHE showed considerable variation from one historic map source to another.

Following discussions with local heritage groups and with the ambition of collecting data useful to the communities’ ambition to develop a coastal heritage trail, the project aimed to map the extent of the shipyards and associated industry between Port Glasgow and Greenock. To achieve this aim, the project used historic mapping, ortho-rectified modern aerial photography and the HES aerial photograph collection to map the extents of, and upgrade the records of, the shipyards and associated features such as quays, docks, areas of land reclamation and associated industry.

Two graving docks where built on the W side of the East Harbour, later known as East India Harbour. The earlier of the two docks was built between 1818 and 1824 at the cost of £20,000 and is depicted on Andrew Macfarlane's 1842 map ‘Greenock and Environs’. It measured 356 feet (108.5m) long at the base, 38 feet (11.6m) wide at the entrance and reached a depth of 11 feet 10 inches (3.6m).

A second graving dock of similar dimensions was constructed to the N of the earlier dock between 1958 and 1971. The docks were in use to repair ships until the 1980s. Both docks have since been filled in.

Information from HES, Survey and Recording (AKK) 10 April 2017.