Administrative Boundary of Renfrewshire

About Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire is a council area in west-central Scotland, on the southern bank of the River Clyde immediately west of Glasgow. Covering approximately 261 square kilometres, Renfrewshire had a population of approximately 177,000 at the 2022 Census, with Paisley as its administrative centre and largest town. The Paisley Pattern and Paisley Abbey Paisley gave its name to the world-famous "paisley pattern" — a teardrop-shaped motif derived from the Persian and Kashmiri boteh design — after the town's weavers became the leading producers of imitation Kashmir shawls in the early 19th century, using Jacquard looms to mass-produce the intricate pattern at prices far below the imported originals; at its peak Paisley's textile industry employed tens of thousands of weavers and the town's name became permanently attached to the design in English. Paisley Abbey, founded in 1163 by Walter Fitzalan, the first High Steward of Scotland, was the burial place of the High Stewards, whose descendants became the House of Stewart (Stuart), the royal dynasty that ruled Scotland and later England; the abbey remains a working parish church today. The Coats Observatory, built in 1883, was funded by the Coats family, whose thread-manufacturing firm J. & P. Coats grew into one of the largest textile businesses in the world. Glasgow Airport Renfrewshire is home to Glasgow Airport, Scotland's second-busiest airport, located at Abbotsinch on the western edge of Paisley; the airport, together with the area's aerospace and engineering industries, continues a long tradition of manufacturing that once centred on Clyde shipbuilding. GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of Renfrewshire Council is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the OS Open Geography portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports textile heritage mapping, ecclesiastical history research, aviation and transport planning, and demographic analysis across the Renfrewshire council area.

📍 Administrative boundary of Renfrewshire county