Inverkip (/ˌɪnvərˈkɪp/; Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Chip) is a village and parish in the Inverclyde council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland, 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Greenock and 8.1 miles (13 km) north of Largs on the A78 trunk road.

In 1170 Baldwin de Bigres, Sheriff of Lanark, granted a stretch of land to the monks of Paisley Abbey.

[2] Pennyland is an old Scots word of Norse origin which is used to describe a small piece of land, the rent for which is one penny per year.

Inverkip was made a burgh of barony before the Act of Union in 1707, with the parish containing all of Gourock, Wemyss Bay, Skelmorlie and part of Greenock.

This small church (known as Auld Kirk) served the entire Christian population between Kilmacolm and Largs for around 400 years.

The church building is described by Historic Environment Scotland as "2-storey type; simple Renaissance with upper windows round-headed; open belfry at front gable; (1804-5).

A Royal Enquiry into the Inverkip witch hunts, which have been compared to those at Salem, was led by Archibald Stewart of Blackhall.

During this enquiry 18 year old Marie Lamont was tried as a witch before the Commission, Sir Archibald and the Rev John Hamilton.

Marie confessed that ‘Jean King, Kattie Scott, Janet Holm, herself and sundry others, met together in the mirk, at the bucht-gait of Ardgowan whar, the devil was with them in the shape of a black man with cloven feet, and directit them to fetch whyte sand fre the shore, and cast it about yetts of Ardgowan and about the ministers hous’.

Local reputation had it that he was in league with the devil, and he died in mysterious circumstances in a barn belonging to one of his former tenant farmers.

[5] Commissioned by Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, 5th Baronet and designed by industrialist Robert Thom of Rothesay, this grand water supply scheme in the hills behind the village was completed in 1827.

It entailed the damming of Shaws Water (a small stream on the other side of the hills from Greenock) to create what is now known as Loch Thom.

They lay in wait near the Daff burn and when Thomas had reached that point on his way to the “big house” with his morning delivery, the command to halt came from Spence.

Mr Spence immediately searched the cart and in addition to the usual and necessary commodity of milk, he found three casks of Highland whisky containing in all 30 gallons.

The horse, cart, milk and whisky and, of course, Thomas, were seized and taken in charge when, suddenly, Spence spotted Robert Cochrane some distance off.

A jetty near the present day War Memorial served ferry boats which tendered to the passing Paddle Steamers.

The 1913 OS 25 inch map shows a gasometer at the farm[6] Electricity arrived in the village in 1932, supplied from the Hydro scheme in nearby Skelmorlie.

The mouth of Kip Water was excavated in 1940 by the Army Royal Engineers Unit to enable the storage of barges.

This provided much needed affordable, good quality housing to local people in the immediate post-WWII years.

This walk is virtually traffic-free and is suitable for mountain bikes, although they must give way to walkers as the path on the Cut is narrow Also part of the regional park is Lunderston Bay, a popular picnic spot on the Firth of Clyde which has a ranger service and toilet facilities.

[citation needed] A coastal path (part of the National Cycle Network, Route 75) runs south from the bay to Inverkip, via Ardgowan Estate and Kip Marina.

[citation needed] At the top of Langhouse Road a building reminiscent of the Cold War can be found in Square Wood.

Known locally as 'the radar station', formally known as Inverkip Anti-Aircraft Operations Room (AAOR), the building (which is mostly underground) served "3 Group 77 Brigade, the Clyde Anchorage gun defended area (GDA)".

Conversion to residential use commenced in early 2011, but by August 2017 little visible progress had been made outside, and the inside was several feet deep with water.

The centre includes a public library, meeting rooms, a main hall which can serve as a theatre and kitchen and catering facilities for up to 100 people.

[12] The white granite simple obelisk memorial was erected by the people of the village in 1920 to commemorate the young local men who died in the First World War.

The current boathouse stands on an elevated position near the war memorial, on land that was donated to the club by Sir Michael Robert Shaw Stewart of Ardgowan for that purpose.

That building was vacated when the pharmacy moved along Main Street to Kip Park and the village has been without a Post Office since that time (early 2020).