Administrative Boundary of Inverclyde

About Inverclyde

Inverclyde is a council area on the south bank of the Firth of Clyde in west-central Scotland. Covering approximately 160 square kilometres — making it one of the smallest mainland council areas in Scotland — Inverclyde had a population of approximately 78,000 at the 2022 Census, concentrated in the towns of Greenock, Port Glasgow, and Gourock. Shipbuilding and James Watt Greenock rose to prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries as one of the Clyde's principal shipbuilding and sugar-refining towns; at its peak the town's shipyards, including Scott's of Greenock (founded 1711, one of the oldest shipbuilding firms in the world), built vessels for merchant and naval fleets worldwide, while Greenock's sugar refineries earned it the nickname "Sugaropolis," processing raw cane sugar from the Caribbean for distribution across Britain. James Watt, the engineer whose improvements to the steam engine helped drive the Industrial Revolution, was born in Greenock in 1736; the Watt Institution and a statue in the town centre commemorate him, and the James Watt Dock — now a marina — bears his name. Newark Castle and the Free French Memorial Newark Castle, on the waterfront at Port Glasgow, is a well-preserved 15th- and 16th-century tower house and mansion held for centuries by the Maxwell family, now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. On Lyle Hill above Gourock stands the Cross of Lorraine, a memorial to the sailors of the Free French Naval Forces who were based in the Clyde during the Second World War, commanding sweeping views across the Firth of Clyde to the Cowal peninsula and the islands of Bute and Arran. The Greenock Cut, a 19th-century aqueduct built to supply the town with fresh water from Loch Thom, now forms a popular walking route through the hills above the town. GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of Inverclyde Council is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the OS Open Geography portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports industrial heritage mapping, maritime history research, coastal planning, and demographic analysis across the Inverclyde council area.

📍 Administrative boundary of Inverclyde county