Gourock (Ghireag in Scottish Gaelic) which means pimple shaped or rounded hill in reference to the many hills surrounding the area

The town was described in a historical gazetteer as a watering-place in Innerkip parish, NW Renfrewshire, extending nearly 2 miles along the Southern shore of the Firth of Clyde. By water it is 1½ mile S of Kilcreggan at the narrowest, and 4 3/8. miles SW of Helensburgh, whilst by road it is 1¾ mile N of Ravenscraig station, 2½ miles ENE of Cloch Lighthouse, and 2¾ WNW of the centre of Greenock, with which it communicated by tramway opened on 1 July 1873.

In 1694 Sir William Stewart of Castle Milk 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 and 10 Nov. A rope work, 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. All these industries are things of the past.

Modern Gourock is a far cry from its early beginnings. It has evolved from fishing village to a Victorian seaside getaway for the people of Glasgow and Paisley and is now a bustling town, filled with small shops, cafes and many a good Public House.

The old stone jetty originally built to provide shelter to the herring fleet was long ago replaced by a much bigger Victorian Pier. In recent times this has been allowed to fall into disrepair and as recently as 1995 was almost totally destroyed leaving only the east end of the original structure where the modern car ferries belonging to Caledonian MacBrayne arrive and depart on an hourly basis shuttling cars and passengers to the town of Dunoon.

Gourock has in recent years been subject to neglect and a distinct lack of funding from the local authority Inverclyde Council, and many of its residents feel that their proud town is being let down and overlooked in favour of its larger neighbour Greenock.