page_title: Lyle Hill
section_title: Scenic viewpoints
hierarchical_section_title: Lyle Hill / Scenic viewpoints
caption_attribution_description: English: Lyle Hill scenic viewpoint, with information boards and benches on a higher platform, above the footpath around the top of the crags. At the turning point, the railing extends round a toposcope on a white painted capstan. The view west looks over Gourock and the Firth of Clyde to the Cowal hills around the Holy Loch, to its north Loch Long extends behind Barons Point and Kilcreggan.
context_page_description: Lyle Hill at the West End of Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland, has scenic viewpoints accessible from Lyle Road which was constructed in 1879–1880 and named after Provost Abram Lyle, well known as a sugar refiner. The hill's highest point is Craigs Top at 426 feet above sea level, and before the road was constructed the hill was known as the Craigs, or as the Bingens.
  Adjacent to the highest point of the road, a scenic viewpoint looks out over Gourock and the Firth of Clyde to Cowal in the west, and north over the Fort Matilda area of Greenock to Argyll across the Clyde. There are benches, information points, and a beacon which is lit on significant occasions. Car parking spaces give views to the west, and a short distance further down the road the Free French Memorial is in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine combined with an anchor. Across the road, steps and a rough path lead up to a viewpoint at Craigs Top with views up the River Clyde as far as Glasgow.
context_section_description: Viewpoints provide panoramic views across the Clyde. The hill overlooks Gourock and the Tail of the Bank, an area of the River Clyde named after the end of the long sandbanks resulting from the river`s journey from the counties of Lanark and Renfrew and denoting the point at which the river becomes the Firth of Clyde. Also visible are the Cowal hills, with the town of Dunoon below, the Holy Loch, former site of the US Navy Scottish submarine base and the settlements of Kilcreggan, Rosneath and Helensburgh to the east. On a clear day it is possible to see beyond the Erskine Bridge to Glasgow in the east, and the Island of Arran and beyond to the south west.
  Immediately to the north of the hill Greenock's Battery Park provides level playing fields, bounded on the west by Gourock's Cardwell Bay and on the east by the former torpedo factory, now occupied by warehousing and a housing development, and the Navy Buildings for long occupied by HM Coastguard. They stand at Ironotter Point which in the late 18th century was the site of a coastal gun battery called Fort Matilda, a name now given to the area, to the railway station just to the north of Lyle Hill and to the playing pitch of the local rugby side, the Greenock Wanderers.
  The viewpoint is marked by a beacon which was constructed to mark the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth in 1977 and is lit on special occasions. On the other side of the road, steps and a rough path lead up to Craigs Top, the highest point of the hill. There are steep craigs on the north and west of the hill, formed by glacial erosion, to its south undulating upland forms the site of Greenock golf course. Its high point is at Bow Hill on the west side, and the ground slopes less steeply to the south and east.
  A war memorial to the Free French forces who fought in the Second World War stands on the western brow of the hill. The Free French Memorial, Greenock, was built in the shape of the Cross of Lorraine, the emblem of the Free French, combined with an anchor. It has plaques commemorating the loss of the Flower-class corvettes Alyssa and Mimosa, and of the submarine Surcouf. Locally, it is also associated with the memory of the loss of the Maillé Brézé which blew up at the Tail of the Bank.
caption: Viewpoint platform, with views over Gourock and the Clyde to Cowal, and toposcope on capstan at corner of footpath above crags
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