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Garthland. An estate, with a mansion, in Lochwinnoch parish, in the western vicinity of Lochwinnoch town. Purchased by his ancestor in 1727, it belongs to Henry Macdowall, Esq. (b. 1845; suc. 1882).
Garvel Point. See GREENOCK.
Gateside. A village in Neilston parish, on the left side of Levern Water, and on the Glasgow and Neilston railway, 1 1/4 mile WSW of the centre of Barrhead. One of the cluster of seats of manufacture now forming the police burgh of Barrhead, it had a cotton factory as early as 1786. Pop. (1861) 455, (1871) 399, (1881) 465, (1891) 446.
Giffnock. A hamlet in Eastwood parish, 1 1/4 mile S of Pollokshaws, with a post office under Glasgow. It has a station on the Glasgow and Busby railway, and lies near extensive quarries of an excellent building sandstone. popularly called `liver rock.'
Glanderston. An estate, with a mansion of 1697, a farmhouse now, in Neilston parish, 2 miles S of Barrhead. It was given in 1507 by the first Earl of Lennox to his brother John Stewart, and, going by marriage to Mure of Caldwell, afterwards passed to other proprietors.
Gleniffer Braes. A range of trap hills in the S of Abbey parish, culminating 3 1/4 miles SSW of Paisley at Sergeantlaw (749 feet). A rough and undulating country--masses of grey crag interspersed with whinny knolls--they embosom the reservoirs of the PAISLEY Waterworks, formed in 1837-81, and are seamed by pretty ravines, each with its brawling stream. Upon these braes the poet Tannahill, who wedded them to song, was wont to stray on week-day evenings or on the Sabbath day, musing on the various objects of beauty scattered profusely around. Here it was he noted `the breer wi' its saft faulding blossom,' `the craw flower's early bell,' and `the birk wi' its mantle o' green.' Here he now listened to the warble of the mavis rising from `the shades of STANELY-shaw,' now gazed, with rapt delight, on the gorgeous scenery of the lower Clyde, his native town in the foreground, and the far-away frontier Grampians. And here annually for many years have been held the Tannahill open-air concerts--the proceeds of which are devoted to some prominent local purpose.--Ord. Sur., sh. 30. 1866.
Glenkillock. A wooded ravine in Abbey and Neilston parishes, intersecting the Fereneze Hills, and taking down Killock Burn east-south-eastward to Levern Water nearly opposite Neilston village. It contains three waterfalls, respectively 12, 12, and 20 feet in leap, and all so beautiful as to have been pronounced perfect miniatures of the three falls of Clyde. Both glen and burn have been sung by Tannahill and other poets.--Ord. Sur., shs. 30, 22, 1866-65.
Glenlora. A mansion in Lochwinnoch parish 1 mile W of Lochwinnoch town.
Gourock. A burgh and watering-place in Innerkip parish, the older portion, or Gourock proper, lying in the bay of the same name, and the whole extending, some 2 miles along the southern shore of the Firth of Clyde. By water it is 1 1/2 mile S of Kilcreggan at the narrowest, and 4 3/8 miles SW of Helensburgh; whilst by road it is 2 1/2 miles ENE of Cloch Lighthouse, and 2 3/4 WNW of the centre of Greenock, with which it communicates by a tramway opened on 1 July 1873. It lies along the firth, right and left from Kempoch Point, opposite the mouth of Loch Long, where the firth broadens out into its full beauty and magnificence. A hill called Barnhill (490 feet), precipitous on the western flank, and descending and narrowing to a point at Kempoch, cuts Gourock into two villages--Gourock proper and Ashton, the E and W ends of the place--each with its own bay. Gourock proper looks mainly up the Clyde, towards Roseneath and Helensburgh. Ashton, round the point, looks across the firth westward to Strone, Holy Loch, and Dunoon. Gourock Bay, measuring 3/4 mile across the entrance and 3 1/4 furlongs thence to its inmost recess, affords good anchorage for yachts, being free from rock and shoal. West Bay is hardly a bay in the proper sense of the term, so slight is its encurvature; but its rocky or shingly beach is adapted for bathing. An extension of the Caledonian railway from Greenock, opened in 1889, and emerging from a long tunnel here, has its terminus at a new pier at Kempoch Point, while a fleet of saloon steamers connects with the watering-places on the opposite shores of the firth and with Rothesay. By the erection, however along the foreshore, of a massive embankment to accommodate the railway station, hotel, and steamboat pier, the aspect of the bay has been greatly altered and rendered less picturesque.
      The greater portion of Gourock proper is a continuous, well-built terrace-line, fully 1/2 mile long, and standing on nearly a dead level close to the beach; but a considerable portion consists of short streets and separate houses on the face of the brae behind. A small portion of Ashton, joining on to the lower end of Gourock proper, and sometimes called Kempoch, is a double line of houses or short street, of similar character to the main part of Gourock proper; the greater portion is an array of villas or neat two-story houses, in terrace-line, confronting the West Bay; and a conspicuous portion consists of separate villas on a high line of road along the crest of a steep overhanging brae, with gardens and garden walls running almost precipitously down its face. The site of all the beachward portions of the town is the narrow, low platform of the old sea-margin that fringes nearly all the Firth of Clyde; and the site of the higher portions is a range of braes, abrupt or sloping, formed by the upheaval of eruptive rocks. The seaward view from the town is everywhere charming and diversified, ranging over an extensive reach of the Dumbartonshire and Argyllshire hills, mountains, and sea-lochs; the roads from its two extremities, towards Greenock and Innerkip, are delightful carriage-drives; and the steep grounds behind afford delightful rambles to pedestrians, and command magnificent views. The gentlest part of the ascent, southward from the E end of Gourock proper, is traversed by a carriage-road towards the vale of Kip Water; and the dingle thence to Greenock is partly occupied by the park and mansion of Gourock House, and contains some exquisite scenery. It was a seabathing resort in times long prior to the introduction of steam navigation, and it continues to be frequented more or less throughout the year, being always crowded during the summer months.
      The town has a post office (R. S. 0.), with money order, savings bank, insurance, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Union bank, several hotels, a gaswork (1849), a water supply (with new reservoir at Larkfield), police and coastguard stations, a bowling club, a young men's Christian association, temperance and other societies, a masonic lodge (1878), and the Gamble Institute, erected in 1874-76 at a cost of £8000 by Mrs. Henry Gamble of Ashburn. Besides two public halls, with accommodation for 350 and 100 persons, this handsome building contains a public library, coffee and smoking rooms, and baths. The quoad sacra parish of Gourock, constituted in 1857, is in the presbytery of Greenock and synod of Glasgow and Ayr. Successor to a chapel of ease of 1776, its church was built in 1832-33 at a cost of £2300, being a neat structure with a square battlemented tower. In 1882 it was enlarged, and greatly improved by the introduction of an organ and a stained glass window. A hall and rooms behind were added in 1874, and a manse was purchased in 1877. The Free church (1855-57) is a handsome Gothic edifice whose tower was completed in 1877. There are also a Gothic U.P. church (1848), a Congregational church (1879), a Scotch Episcopal church, St. Bartholomew's (1857), and a Roman Catholic, St. Ninian's (1880), which, Early English in style, is divided into two flats--the upper one the church, the lower a schoolroom. Two handsome new public schools, the Central and the Eastern, were built in 1877, and, with respective accommodation for 517 and 262 children, have an average attendance of about 340 and 240, and grants of nearly £380 and £270. The R.C. school has accommodation for 297, an average attendance of about 80, and a grant of over £74.
      A monument of prehistoric times is a monolith of grey mica schist, 6 feet high and 2 in diameter, which stands between the edge of the cliff and modern Gourock Castle. It bears the soubriquet of `Granny Kempoch,' and for ages was looked upon with superstitious awe. Sailors and fishermen would pace seven times around it, carrying a basketful of sea-sand and chanting an eerie strain, thereby to ensure a prosperous breeze; whilst a newly-wedded pair must also make the round of it, if they would have good luck. In 1662 Mary Lamont, a girl in her `teens, was, with other women of Gourock and Greenock, condemned and burned as a witch. She confessed, among other things, to having been present `at a meeting at Kempoch, where they intended to cast the long-stone into the sea, thereby to destroy boats and ships; where also they danced, and the devil kissed them when they went away.'
      This is not the first mention of Gourock, since James IV. sailed hence on his expedition to the Western Isles (1494); and its vanished old castle, small and unimportant though it was, is known to have been held by the powerful Douglases down to their forfeiture in 1455. Forming the western part of Finnart barony, the lands of Gourock were thereafter held by the Stewarts of Castlemilk till 1784, when they were sold for £5000 to Duncan Darroch, once a poor Innerkip herd-boy, whose great-grandson, Duncan Darroch, Esq. (b. 1836; suc. 1864), holds estates in Renfrewshire and Ross-shire. To him belongs Gourock House, with its beautiful grounds, although he has never made it his home; another mansion, modern Gourock Castle, was built near the site of its predecessor in 1747, and is a plain edifice, with later additions.
      So early as 1694 Sir William Stewart of Castlemilk obtained a charter incorporating the lands of Gourock into a free barony, and Gourock itself into a burgh of barony, with power to rear, build, and enlarge the same town, and to hold a court and market every Tuesday, with two annual fairs on 12 June o. s. and 10 Nov. o. s. A rope-walk, started in 1777, was removed to Port Glasgow in 1851; a copper-mine was sunk in 1780 in the valley behind Tower Hill; and the first red herring ever cured in Great Britain was cured at Gourock in 1688. These industries all are things of the past; but still, after upwards of sixty years, whinstone is largely exported from Craigmuschat Quarry. The Police Act of 1850 was adopted in 1858, the General Improvement (Scotland) Act of 1862 in 1877 and 1884; and under the Burgh Police Act of 1892 Gourock is governed by a provost, two bailies, and six other commissioners. In 1893 efforts were made unsuccessfully to extend the boundaries of the burgh. Pop. of town (1841) 2169, (1861) 2116, (1871) 2940, (1881) 3336, (1891) 4475, of whom 4431 were in the police burgh and 1949 were males; of quoad sacra parish (1871) 3291, (1881) 4296, (1891) 5521, of whom 5355 were in Innerkip and 166 in Greenock West Parish. Houses in town (1891) inhabited 1037, vacant 217, building 3.--Ord. Sur., shs. 30, 29, 1866-73. See the Rev. David Macrae's Notes about Gourock, chiefly Historical (Edinb. 1880).
Govan. A parish and a burgh in the lower ward of Lanarkshire, and in the extreme NW of that county. A portion of the parish which was formerly in the county of Renfrew, was, by the Boundary Commissioners. in 1892, transferred to Lanarkshire. At the same time a small strip situated within the police burgh of Renfrew was added to the parish of Renfrew; and another part--bounded on the E by the municipality of Glasgow (as fixed by the Extension of Boundaries Act of 1891), on the S by the parish of Eastwood, on the W by the parish of Abbey, and on the N partly by the parish of Abbey and partly by the then existing boundary between Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire--was transferred to Eastwood parish. Neither of these two portions had any population. Govan is bounded N by Dumbartonshire, NE by Maryhill and Barony, E by City and Rutherglen, all in Lanarkshire; S by Cathcart and Eastwood, SW by Abbey and Renfrew, and NW by New Kilpatrick, all in Renfrewshire. The Clyde divides the parish into two unequal parts, the larger extending along the S side of the river with a length of 6 1/2 miles, and a breadth at its widest part, near the centre, of 1 5/8, mile; the smaller on the N bank of the Clyde--all W of the Kelvin, except a small patch just at the mouth--and measuring in its greatest length (along the Great Western Road, W of Kelvin Bridge) 2 1/4 miles, and in its greatest breadth (from Whiteinch on the SW to the point on the N where the county of Dumbarton reaches the Kelvin) 2 1/8 miles.
Greenock. A parish of NW Renfrewshire, bounded N by the Firth of Clyde, E by Port Glasgow, S by Kilmalcolm, and W by Innerkip. Extending 4 3/4 miles along the Firth, and from 1 3/8 to 5 3/8 miles inland, it has an area of 6247 1/4 acres, of which 166 are foreshore and 230 water. The last is made up by two or three rivulets running direct to the Firth, by Whinhill Reservoir, and by the upper part of Gryfe Reservoir (2 miles x 1/4 mile). Loch Thom (1 3/4 x 1/2 mile), also belonging to the Greenock Waterworks, falls just within Innerkip parish. The shore is fringed by a strip of level ground, 5 to 7 furlongs in breadth, that marks the old sea-margin of the Firth. The soil of this level portion is light, mixed with sand and gravel; but has been rendered very fertile, owing to the great encouragement given to cultivation from the constant demand for country produce by the numerous population. Beyond, the surface is hilly, attaining 400 feet at Caddie Hill, 813 at Whitelees Moor, 727 near Gryfe Reservoir, and 1175 in the extreme S. The lower slopes are diversified with patches of loam, clay, and till. Farther up, and towards the summits of the hills, the soil for the most part is thin and in places mossy, the bare rocks appearing here and there. The land in this quarter is little adapted for anything but pasturage for cattle and sheep. On the other side of the heights, except a few cultivated spots on the southern border of the parish, chiefly on the banks of the infant Gryfe, heath and coarse grass prevail. The views from the Greenock hills are varied, extensive, and grand, combining water, shipping, the scenery on either shore of the Clyde, and the lofty Highland mountains. The declivities of the hills overlooking the town and the river are adorned with villas, and diversified with thriving plantations, so that they present a very pleasant appearance. The part of the hills directly behind the town, too, is cloven to a low level by a fine narrow valley, through which run the road and the railway to Wemyss Bay. The contour of the declivities both towards this valley and towards the Clyde is rolling and diversified; and the general summit-line, in consequence of being at such a short distance from the shore, looks, from most points of view, to be much higher than it really is. Hence the landscape of the parish, particularly around the town, is decidedly picturesque. The rocks are chiefly the Old Red sandstone, with its conglomerate, near the shore, and various kinds of trap, principally basalt and whinstone, throughout the hills. The sandstone and the trap are quarried for building purposes.
      The Clyde opposite the parish of Greenock varies in width from 1 1/2 to 4 miles. In the middle of the Firth there is a sandbank called the Pillar Bank, which, commencing almost immediately below Dumbarton Castle, or 7 1/2 miles above Greenock, and running longitudinally, terminates at a point nearly opposite the western extremity of the town, well known to mariners and others by the name of the `Tail of the Bank.' During spring tides, part of the bank opposite to the harbour is visible at low water; and the depth of the channel on the south side of this bank is such as to admit vessels of the largest class. Between Port Glasgow and Garvel Point, a remarkable promontory at the E end of the burgh, the high part of the bank is separated from the upper portion (part of which, opposite to Port Glasgow, is also dry at low water) by a narrow channel significantly called the `Through-let,' through which the tide, passing from the lower part of the Firth in a north-easterly direction, and obstructed in its progress by Ardmore, a promontory on the Dumbartonshire side, rushes with such impetuosity as to produce high water at Port Glasgow a few minutes earlier than at Greenock. The submarine island which is thus formed, and which is commonly called the Greenock Bank, to distinguish it from the high part of the bank opposite to Port Glasgow, was granted by the Crown to the corporation of the town of Greenock for an annual payment of `one penny Scots money, if asked only.' The charter by the Barons of Exchequer on behalf of the Crown, dated 5 July 1816, contains the following words expressive of the object which the corporation had in view in applying for the grant:-- `Pro proposito aedificandi marum, vel acquirendi ad ripam antedictam ex australi latere ejusdem quantum ad septentrionem eadem possit acquiri,'--`for the purpose of building a wall or of gaining to the foresaid bank from its S side as much as can be gained to the N.' The southern channel is the only one for vessels passing to and from the different ports on the river, the greatest depth of water in the `Through-let' being quite insufficient in its present state to admit of vessels of any considerable burden passing that way. The width of the navigable channel, opposite to the harbour of Greenock, does not much exceed 300 yards. Ascending, it rapidly diminishes in width--a circumstance which, but for the application of steam to the towing of ships, must continually have presented an almost insuperable obstacle to the progress of the shipping trade of Glasgow.
      Prior to the Reformation Greenock was comprehended in the parish of Innerkip, and being at a great distance from the parish church, the inhabitants had the benefit of three chapels within their own bounds. One of them, and probably the principal, was dedicated to St. Lawrence, from whom the adjacent expanse derived its name of the Bay of St. Lawrence. It stood on the site of the house at the W corner of Virginia Street in Greenock, belonging to the heirs of Mr. Roger Stewart. In digging the foundations of that house, a number of human bones were found, which proves that a burying-ground must have been attached to the chapel. On the lands still called Chapelton there stood another chapel, to which also there must have been a cemetery attached; for when these grounds were formed into a kitchen-garden many gravestones were found under the surface. A little below Kilblain there was placed a third religious house, the stones of which the tenant of the ground was permitted to remove for the purpose of enclosing his garden. From the name it is apparent that this was a cell or chapel dedicated to St. Blane. After the Reformation, when the chapels were dissolved, the inhabitants of Greenock had to walk to the parish church of Innerkip, which was 6 miles distant, to join in the celebration of public worship. To remedy this inconvenience, John Shaw, the Superior of Greenock, obtained a grant from the King in 1589, authorising him to build a church for the accommodation of the people on his lands of Greenock, Finnart, and Spangock, who, it was represented, were `all fishers, and of a reasonable number.' Power was also given to build a manse and form a churchyard. This grant was ratified by parliament in 1592. The arrangement resembled the erection of a chapel of ease in our own times. Shaw having, in 1592, built a church and a manse, and assigned a churchyard, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1594, whereby his lands above mentioned, with their tithes and ecclesiastical duties, were disjoined from the parsonage and vicarage of Innerkip, and erected into a distinct parsonage and vicarage which were assigned to the newly erected parish church of Greenock; and this was ordained to take effect for the year 1593, and in all time thereafter.
      The parish of Greenock continued, as thus established, till 1636, when there was obtained from the Lords Commissioners for the Plantation of Churches a decree, whereby the baronies of Easter and Wester Greenock, and various other lands which had belonged to the parish of Innerkip, with a small portion of the parish of Houstoun, were erected into a parish to be called Greenock, and the church formerly erected at Greenock was ordained to be the parochial church, of which Shaw was the patron. The limits which were then assigned to the parish of Greenock have continued to the present time; though, for some purposes, it has been subdivided since 1754 and 1809 into the three parishes of Old or West Greenock, New or Middle Greenock, and East Greenock. Ecclesiastically, again, it is distributed among the following parishes:--Cartsburn, East, Gaelic, Ladyburn, Middle, North, South, Wellpark, and West. Pop. of entire parish (1801) 17,458, (1821) 22,008, (1841) 36,936, (1861) 43,894, (1871) 59,794, (1881) 69,238, (1891) 66,247, of whom 39,035 were in West parish, 5311 in Middle parish, and 21,901 in East parish, whilst 11,104 were in Cartsburn quoad sacra parish, 84S5 in East, 2312 in Ladyburn, 5311 in Middle, 3401 in North, 10,585 in South, 921 in Wellpark, and 23,962 in West.--Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.