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Renfrewshire

Siorrachd Rinn Friù

Coat of arms

Council logo

United Kingdom

Lieutenancy area

Admin HQ

Government

• Body

Renfrewshire Council

Area

• Total

101.0 sq mi (261.5 km²)

Area rank

Ranked 24th

Population

(2020)

• Total

177,790

• Rank

Ranked 10th

• Density

1,760.9/sq mi (679.89/km²)

ONS code

S12000038

ISO 3166 code

GB-RFW

Renfrewshire (/ˈrɛnfruːʃɪər, -ʃər/) (Scots: Renfrewshire; Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland.

The council area has the same name as the historic county of Renfrewshire, which had been abolished for local government purposes in 1975, but the modern council area only covers the central part of the historic county. The eastern part of the pre-1975 county is covered by the East Renfrewshire council area, and the western part by the Inverclyde council area.

Renfrewshire is located in the west central Lowlands. It borders East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City council area, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, and lies on the southern bank of the River Clyde. The current council area of Renfrewshire was established in 1996.

The term Renfrewshire may also be used to refer to the larger historic county, which was established in the fifteenth century. The three council areas of Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, and East Renfrewshire together form the Renfrewshire lieutenancy area. The same area also has a joint valuation board area for electoral registration and local tax valuation purposes. The three council areas together are sometimes referred to as Greater Renfrewshire to distinguish them from the council area called Renfrewshire.

The town of Paisley is the area's main settlement and centre of local government. The area also contains the historic county town of Renfrew.

Toponymy
History
Settlements
Communities
Demographics
Culture
Governance
Education
Transport
Places of interest
See also

Toponymy

The name Renfrewshire derives from being the shire (the area controlled by a sheriff) administered from the royal burgh of Renfrew. The name Renfrew has been attested since the Roman occupation of Britain. The name is believed to originate from Common Brittonic/Cumbric, from ren, as in Scottish Gaelic: rinn, or as in Welsh: rhyn (a point or cape of land) and from frew, as in Welsh: fraw, or ffrau (flow of water). This suggests a point of land near the flow of water, such as at the confluence of the Cart and Clyde rivers.

History

The historic county of Renfrewshire was abolished for local government purposes in 1975. The county was divided to become three of the nineteen districts in the Strathclyde region, being Eastwood, Inverclyde, and Renfrew.

In the debates leading to the local government reforms of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, the government initially proposed replacing these three districts with two council areas: "West Renfrewshire", covering Inverclyde district and the western parts of Renfrew district (including Paisley, Johnstone, and Renfrew), and "East Renfrewshire", covering Eastwood district and the eastern parts of Renfrew district (including Barrhead, Neilston and Ralston). The proposals were criticised, with West Renfrewshire having three times the population of East Renfrewshire; the accusation was made in parliament that the proposed changes constituted gerrymandering, with East Renfrewshire only being kept separate because it had more Conservative voters.

The proposals were not supported locally, with Inverclyde successfully campaigning to be allowed to form its own council area, and the Ralston area voting in a referendum not to be transferred to East Renfrewshire. When the government conceded to allow Inverclyde to continue as a separate authority, the name West Renfrewshire was dropped. The central district was instead named Renfrewshire, despite only covering the central part of the historic county of that name. The new Renfrewshire covered the former Renfrew district except for the Barrhead electoral division (which also included Neilston) which went instead to East Renfrewshire. The new council areas came into effect on 1 April 1996.

The Braehead shopping centre was built in 1999 straddling the boundary between Renfrewshire and Glasgow, leading to a dispute between the two councils. It was agreed that the boundary should be changed to place the whole centre in one council area, but both authorities wanted it. In 2002, the Local Government Boundary Commission eventually redrew the boundary to include all of the centre in Renfrewshire.

Settlements

Largest settlements by population:

Settlement	Population (2020)
Paisley	77270
Renfrew	24270
Johnstone	15930
Erskine	15010
Linwood	8450
Bishopton	7920
Houston	6360
Elderslie	5480
Bridge of Weir	4920
Kilbarchan	3300

Communities

The area is divided into 25 community council areas, 20 of which have community councils as at 2023 (being those with asterisks in the list below):

Bishopton*
Bridge of Weir*
Brookfield*
Charleston
Elderslie*
Erskine*
Ferguslie*
Foxbar and Brediland
Gallowhill
Glenburn
Hawkhead and Lochfield*
Houston*
Howwood*
Hunterhill
Inchinnan*
Johnstone*
Kilbarchan*
Langbank*
Linwood*
Lochwinnoch*
Paisley East and Whitehaugh*
Paisley North*
Paisley West and Central*
Ralston*
Renfrew*

Demographics

Ethnic Group	2001		2011		2022
Ethnic Group	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%

White: Total	170,728	98.76%	170,127	97.27%	171,816	94.78%
White: Scottish	161,395	93.36%	159,708	91.31%	147,073	81.13%
White: Other British	5,956	3.45%	5,805	3.32%	12,959	7.15%
White: Irish	1,877	1.09%	1,643	0.94%	1,290	0.71%
White: Gypsy/Traveller	–	–	70	–	70	–
White: Polish	–	–	1,298	0.74%	5,568	3.07%
White: Other	1,500	0.87%	1,603	0.92%	4,853	2.68%
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Total	1,509	0.87%	3,110	1.78%	5,056
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Indian	461	0.27%	1,028	0.59%	1,315	0.73%
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Pakistani	497	0.29%	965	0.55%	2,338	1.29%
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Bangladeshi	8	–	19	–	45	–
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Chinese	440	0.25%	823	0.47%	810	0.45%
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Asian Other	103	0.06%	275	0.16%	548	0.30%
Black, Black Scottish or Black British	30	–	–	–	–	–
African: Total	113	0.07%	804	0.46%	1,439	0.79%
African: African, African Scottish or African British	–	–	782	0.45%	165	0.09%
African: Other African	–	–	22	–	1,274	0.70%
Caribbean or Black: Total	–	–	119	0.07%	163	0.09%
Caribbean	54	–	64	–	68	–
Black	–	–	47	–	15	–
Caribbean or Black: Other	–	–	8	–	80	–
Mixed or multiple ethnic groups: Total	285	0.16%	437	0.25%	1,912	1.05%
Other: Total	148	0.09%	311	0.18%	888	0.49%
Other: Arab	–	–	194	0.11%	329	0.18%
Other: Any other ethnic group	–	–	117	0.07%	559	0.31%

Total:	172,867	100.00%	174,908	100.00%	181,278	100.00%

Culture

Paisley Abbey

Renfrewshire contains several places of interest. In the west of Renfrewshire, Castle Semple Loch at Lochwinnoch and the wider Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park are natural areas of interest, as is the Gleniffer Braes country park in the south.

Paisley contains several historic buildings and notable sites, including Paisley Abbey, Paisley Museum and Coats Observatory, Paisley Town Hall, Coats Memorial Church, Sma' Shot Cottages and St Mirren Park (home of St Mirren F.C.). Outside of Paisley, Elderslie, the claimed birthplace of Scottish knight William Wallace, contains a monument in his honour, while the Weaver's Cottage at Kilbarchan is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. The town of Johnstone is notable for Johnstone Castle, Johnstone High Parish Church and for containing a museum within a supermarket.

The Braehead Arena in Renfrewshire close to the boundary with Glasgow is home to leading professional basketball team, the Scottish Rocks, who compete in the British Basketball League. The arena was also host to the 2000 Ford World Curling Championships.

Governance

Education

Renfrewshire contains the University of the West of Scotland, a new university that was granted university status in 1992 as the University of Paisley. Prior to this, the Paisley Technical College and School of Art was a Central Institution or polytechnic. In 2007 the university merged with Bell College, a further education college in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire and the UWS name was adopted. The university today has sites across the west of Scotland, notably also in Ayr and a joint campus in Dumfries; the main campus remains in Paisley.

Paisley Grammar School

Further education is provided by Paisley Campus of West College Scotland in Paisley, which caters to around 20,000 students. The college also has sites in Inverclyde and West Dumbartonshire.

Renfrewshire contains eleven state secondary schools: Castlehead High School, Gleniffer High School, Gryffe High School, Johnstone High School, Linwood High School, Paisley Grammar School, Park Mains High School, Renfrew High School, St Andrew's Academy, St Benedict's High School, and Trinity High School. It also has 51 primary schools and three schools for children with additional support needs.

Transport

Glasgow International Airport

Renfrewshire is home to Scotland's second busiest airport, Glasgow International Airport, at Abbotsinch between Paisley and Renfrew. The presence of the airport and the proximity to Glasgow means that Renfrewshire supports one of the busiest transport infrastructures in Scotland.

The airport is served by the M8 motorway, which terminates in the area, just east of Langbank, and is a major artery between northwest and southwest Scotland, via the Erskine Bridge.

Developments to ease traffic flow have included a lifting of tolls on the Erskine Bridge, original plans to extend the rail network to connect to the airport have been cancelled and the latest suggestion in 2019 is a metro line connecting Paisley to the airport then on to Glasgow via Braehead. Also the M74 extension was completed to handle traffic from Renfrewshire heading south, diverting it away from Glasgow city centre. Renfrewshire also has bus links provided by FirstGroup, McGill's Bus Services and other smaller operators.