County town: Paisley
Renfrewshire was established as a sheriffdom from the 12th century, centred on Renfrew on the south bank of the Clyde. It was granted to Walter FitzAlan, ancestor of the Stewart dynasty, by David I.
Renfrewshire lies on the south bank of the Clyde opposite Glasgow, a county whose identity changed dramatically with industrialisation. Paisley, its largest town, became the world's leading centre of thread manufacture in the 19th century, its Coats and Clark thread mills employing thousands. The Paisley Pattern, derived from a Kashmir design, took its name from the town. Renfrewshire was the homeland of the Stewart dynasty — ancestors of the British royal family — who held the High Stewardship of Scotland from the 12th century. The Clyde coast around Greenock and Port Glasgow was the shipbuilding heartland of the British Empire in the 19th century.
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland — the Old Statistical Account (1791–99) and the New Statistical Account (1834–45) — provide detailed parish-by-parish descriptions of Renfrewshire at two moments of transformation. Aubrey draws on these accounts when generating reports for Scottish locations, providing historical context specific to the parish and county.
Scotland's 33 traditional counties, established as sheriffdoms from the 12th century onward, were the administrative framework of the country until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 replaced them with regional councils. They remain the reference framework for historical records, genealogy, and cultural identity.
This page introduces the historic county of Renfrewshire. A full Aubrey report for a location within it pulls together everything the record actually holds about that ground, from the geology beneath it to the last coin dropped in a field:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Read in-depth research reports on notable historical places across the UK — explore →
Renfrewshire contains 76 scheduled monuments — sites of national importance protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Browse scheduled monuments in ScotlandAn Aubrey report for a specific location in Renfrewshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data, Statistical Account records, and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.