Gourock Pier
Location type
Name and dates
Gourock Pier (1889-)Station code: National Rail
Opened on the Caledonian Steam Packet Company.
Opened on the Caledonian MacBrayne.
Description
This pier is open. It is a combined facility with Gourock station. Ferries operate from Gourock to Dunoon Pier and Kilcreggan Pier, and sometimes Helensburgh Pier. The pier is located on Kempock Point.
This pier opened when the Caledonian Railway extended their Glasgow to Greenock line on to Gourock. The pier opened to counter the opening of the Glasgow and South Western Railway's pier at Greenock Princes Pier [1st] (opened 1869) and the North British Railway's new pier at Craigendoran Pier (opened 1882). Clearly trains are faster than steamers and reducing the steamer portion and lengthening the train portion reduced the journey time from, say, Dunoon Pier to Glasgow.
In addition to operating the railway the Caledonian Railway operated steamers via the Caledonian Steam Packet Company, effectively extending the railway to the Firth of Clyde piers.
In the 1970s the quayside to the east of the station, and a little to the south, was remade in concrete in connection with the new roll-on-roll-off-service.
The pier was cut back in the 1990s, the timber portion being demolished and the timber, where reusable, sold.
From 2011 the ferry service became passenger only, the ro-ro service ending. The facility remains for use in emergencies.
There was a pier at Gourock before the line and new pier opened, this was a major expansion of that pier and a large amount of the beach was reclaimed for its construction as well as the building of the pier in timber.
Local
The headquarters of Caledonian MacBrayne is by Gourock station.
Caledonian MacBrayne - Gourock
Argyll Ferries operate a passenger ferry service between Gourock Pier and Dunoon Pier.
Tags
Station terminus pierExternal links
Canmore site recordNLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
| Nearby stations Gourock Fort Matilda Branchton Ravenscraig Greenock Princes Pier [1st] Greenock Princes Pier [2nd] Greenock West Drumfrochar IBM Greenock Cathcart Street [1st] Upper Greenock Greenock Central Greenock (Lynedoch) Whinhill Cartsdyke | Adams Boatyard Scottish Concrete Yard Royal Navy Torpedo Factory [Greenock] Lyle Hill Monument Newton Street Tunnel Kilcreggan Boatyard Ravenscraig-Gateside-Smithston Siding Union Street Tunnel Princes Pier Shed Tourist/other Gourock Bay Kilcreggan Pier Ravenscraig Hospital McInroy^s Point Portkil Batteries Old West Kirk [Greenock] |
| Location names in dark blue are on the same original line. | |
Chronology Dates
| / /1869 | Gourock Extension Railway (Caledonian Railway) The Caledonian Railway purchases Gourock Harbour. The company retains the land and Gourock Pier. |
| / /1884 | Gourock Extension Railway (Caledonian Railway) Authorisation for the extension from Greenock Cathcart Street [1st] to Gourock and Gourock Pier. With new new alignment in Greenock the Dellingburn Branch is authorised to be modified. An agreement is made with the Clyde Lighthouse Board over lights. |
| / /1888 | PS Meg Merrilies [II] Operated from Gourock Pier to the Holy Loch (from when?). |
| 01/05/1890 | Caledonian Steam Packet Company Starts to operate service from Gourock Pier (Kempock Point). Gourock opened 01/06/1889. |
| / /1939 | Craigendoran Pier Deviation Ferry services cut back (just prior to the outbreak of the World War II). With the war, PS Lucy Ashton became the only vessel operating out of Craigendoran Pier to Helensburgh Pier, Kilcreggan Pier, Gourock Pier, Kirn Pier and Dunoon Pier. |
