Greenock sits on the south side of the River Clyde at the “Tail of the Bank”, the point where the river expands into the Firth of Clyde (Clyde Estuary).

It’s an ancient town which can be found in documents dating back nearly 1,000 years. It was, though, transformed first by the opening of trade routes to the Americas following the 1707 Treaty of Union, and then by rapid industrialisation.

And it was a Greenock man, James Watt, who was largely responsible for the process which transformed his home town. Watt – regarded by many as the most important engineer who ever lived - developed the modern steam engine in the 1770s while working at Glasgow University. In the following decades it unleashed the industrial revolution across Britain.

James Watt is remembered in Greenock in place names, memorials and statues. Indeed, for more than a century the local college bore his name until the formation of West College Scotland in 2013.

Greenock’s proximity to the growing metropolis of Glasgow and the city’s need to import and export goods from around the world, meant the town’s docks and quay grew quickly, along with its population. One early luxury item imported to the town was sugar from the Caribbean.

Like Glasgow and Clydebank further up-river, Greenock has a rich shipbuilding heritage. Scotts was founded in 1711 and became the world’s oldest shipbuilding firm.  Lithgows (founded 1874) was at one point the largest privately-owned shipyard on earth. The companies merged in the 1960s but Scott Lithgow, like so many other great names, were out of business by the 1980s. Today, only Ferguson’s of Port Glasgow still builds ships on this part of the Clyde.

Greenock is still a busy working port and freight from across the world is handled at the town’s Ocean Terminal, which is also a destination for some of the world's finest cruise ships. The M8 motorway to Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as excellent railway connections means it has excellent links to the rest of Scotland.

West College Scotland works closely with our business partners in Greenock and across Inverclyde, including with Ferguson Marine and with Inverclyde Council, thereby playing an important part in re-establishing Greenock as an important centre for employment, innovation and enterprise.