Greenock, Scotland, UK

Greenock is a small city on the River Clyde with a deep port. Although the town is proud of their most famous son, James Watt (yeah, the guy who figured out how powerful each burner is on your stove), there isn't really that much to do in town, so especially given the small amount of time we were in port (7:00am - 1:00pm), we had to decide where to go, and how to get there. The two best possibilities seemed to be to find our way to Glasgow, and check out one of Scotland's major cities, or to see the country-side. We decided what we could realistically see was Loch Lomand, and Stirling (home of Stirling Castle) and set out to rent a taxi to do just that. But the couple we shared a taxi with were concerned about getting back to the ship on time, and we swapped Stirling for a very brief stop in Glasgow, and Newark Castle, which is on the road to Glasgow from Greenock.

Things we considered but didn't do were to take the train to Glasgow, and then the subway/bus around the city once there. After seeing the bit of Glasgow we did, we made the right decision.

Our first stop was Loch Lomand, a beautiful lake and marina surrounded by stunning, lush, green scenery.

Next, we visited Luss, a small town near Loch Lomand. It was beautiful, serene, and quiet, and then all of the tour busses showed up, so we got out of there fast.

These pictures are from St. George Square in Glasgow. Here is a site that has more pictures of Glasgow.

Our next stop was Newark Castle, located between Greenock and Glasgow. With a beautiful location on the Clyde, and a more non-restored look, Newark Castle is a great find, especially at only 2.20 GB per person! Note the bullet holes on the castle wall in the closeup picture, caused by some marauding Irish at some point in the castle's long history.




Our last stop was both a Greenock monument (given to them by the French for war assistance) and a nice lookout over the port town.


Roy Mackay loved this place and he apparently left his umbrella.

If we had another chance to do this port, we might decide to rent a car to tour on our own, or go with less conservative cruisers, or by ourselves, and see Stirling. We were right, Glasgow is nothing special, at least in the morning, and the scenery is the main event in Scotland.

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More Greenock Pictures (mostly of interest to family and friends)