The River Gryfe (or Gryffe) is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wat ...

and tributary of the

Black Cart Water The River Cart ( sco, River Cairt) is a tributary of the River Clyde, Scotland, which it joins from the west roughly midway between the towns of Erskine and Renfrew and opposite the town of Clydebank. The River Cart itself is very short, being f ...

, running through the County of Renfrew in the west of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. It gives its name to the surrounding

Gryffe Valley Strathgryffe or Gryffe Valley ( gd, Srath Ghriobhaidh) is a strath centred on the River Gryffe in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The River Gryffe passes through the council areas of Inverclyde and Renfrewshire, rising in Kilmacolm and joi ...

, also known as

Strathgryfe Strathgryffe or Gryffe Valley ( gd, Srath Ghriobhaidh) is a strath centred on the River Gryffe in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The River Gryffe passes through the council areas of Inverclyde and Renfrewshire, rising in Kilmacolm and joi ...

Flow

The Gryfe emerges to the south west of the village of

Kilmacolm Kilmacolm () is a village and civil parish in the Inverclyde council area, and the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on the northern slope of the Gryffe Valley, southeast of Greenock and around ...

on the edge of the Duchal Woods. It is fed from a number of streams or burns on the

moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

above the village including the Burnbank Water, the Blacketty Water and the Mill Burn. Its main tributaries are the Green Water and the Gryfe Water, which flows through the village and begins on Little Creuch Hill to the south of Gryfe No. 1 Reservoir. It flows for approximately to join the Black Cart Water near

Glasgow International Airport gd, Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Ghlaschu , image = Glasgow Airport logo.svg , image-width = 200 , image2 = GlasgowAirportFromAir.jpg , image2-width = 250 , IATA = GLA , ICAO = EGPF , type = Public , owner = AGS Airports , hub = *easy ...

beside the M8 motorway at Blackstone Mains Farm, having passed the north side of Quarriers Village, and the villages of

Bridge of Weir Bridge of Weir is a village within the Renfrewshire council area and wider historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Lying within the Gryffe Valley, Bridge of Weir owes its name to the historic crossing point th ...

, Crosslee and

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

. The Gryfe was formerly used to supply water for powering

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

s at Kilmacolm and Crosslee, the latter fed via a lade (millstream) which left the River Gryfe near Bridge of Weir. The river also supplied process water to

ROF Bishopton The Royal Ordnance Factory was a WW2 Ministry of Supply Explosive Factory. It is sited adjacent to the village of Bishopton in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The factory was built to manufacture the propellant cordite for the British Army and the Roya ...

; the water was taken near where the Linwood Moss road joins the Houston Road. The Dargavel Burn, which rises north of Kilmacolm, joins the River Gryfe near the site of the former Georgetown railway station after flowing in a south-east direction through ROF Bishopton.

Name

The name Gryfe comes from the Gaelic ''garbh'' meaning 'rough stream'. The name is variously spelt with one 'f' or two; both spellings appear in official usage. The churches of ''Stragrif'' (Strathgryffe) are mentioned in the 1169 charter of

Paisley Abbey Paisley Abbey is a parish church of the Church of Scotland on the east bank of the White Cart Water in the centre of the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, about west of Glasgow, in Scotland. Its origins date from the 12th century, based on a forme ...

. In 1968,

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

politician Thomas Taylor was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages A ...

as Lord Taylor of Gryfe, of Bridge of Weir in the County of Renfrew. There are a number of places named after the river including Gryffe Road in Kilmacolm, Gryffe Avenue in Bridge of Weir and Gryffe Crescent in Paisley, Gryffe High School – a state secondary school in Houston. There are organisations which refer to the river and its environs, such as the

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...

. The

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

also favours the Gryffe spelling.of 'Gryffe' used by the BBC
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References

External links

at the ''Gazetteer of Scotland''. {{authority control Gryfe Gryfe