MY series of articles looking back 30 years continues with a new travel publication which upset Inverclyde in April, 1994.

It was the Rough Guide to Scotland aimed at travellers ranging from independent backpackers to those who favoured golfing holidays or staying in country hotels.

Inverclyde District Council leisure chairman Sir Simpson Stevenson said: “This is a very, very rough guide.”

In a section entitled Port Glasgow to Wemyss Bay, the publication devoted only one paragraph to the Port.

It read: “Port Glasgow is the first of a string of unprepossessing towns that sprawl along the southern coast of the Firth of Clyde. It’s a grim place with nothing to detain you.”

Greenock fared slightly better, but with positive remarks only about the Custom House and the McLean Museum and Art Gallery.

The guide stated: “Greenock’s town centre has been disfigured by astonishingly unsympathetic developments.”

Referring to Gourock as a “dowdy old resort”, the town was described as having “paint-peeling hotels, amusement arcades and cheap, steamy cafes.”

Criticising the guide, Sir Simpson Stevenson said: “Nobody here has ever considered Port Glasgow or Greenock to be tourist attractions, but that’s not to say we don’t want the towns to be attractive.

“We have spent money locally, floodlighting Greenock Town Hall and part of Port Glasgow.

“Greenock waterfront is in the process of being developed and we will be building on that.”

Sir Simpson added that it was unlikely the guide would be available in local tourism offices.

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TODAY'S photo flashback is of Greenock's former Mackay's the bakers and the company’s Lorne Restaurant in West Blackhall Street are pictured in the 1970s. The Lorne was a popular venue for functions.