Renfrewshire is a relatively small county positioned in Scotland’s ‘central belt’ near Glasgow; it has a total of 168,000 inhabitants. The major settlements are administrative centre Paisley, Johnstone, Renfrew, Linwood and Erskine.

Paisley is the second largest town in Scotland (after East Kilbride) with over 72,000 inhabitants. It is world renowned for its textiles (Paisley Pattern, a Persian influenced tear shaped design in bright primary colours) also Robertsons Preserves famous for their jam was founded in the town but now has its factories in England. The University of the West of Scotland was founded in 1893 and given full University status in 1992 and is famous for its hi-tech and computing graduates. The institution changed its name from University of Paisley in 2007 when it merged with Bell College, Hamilton.

Johnstone has over 16,000 inhabitants and was founded around the Industrial Revolution on coal mining and quarrying especially with its near proximity to Glasgow and the Clyde Estuary.