Paisley

Home > Services > Leisure and culture > Visiting Renfrewshire

Places to visit

• Paisley Museum has the largest collection of Paisley shawls and patterns in the world. Paisley's skillful weavers became world leaders in producing copies of the fashionable shawls imported from India in the late eighteenth century. The shawls soon became known as "paisleys" in the English speaking world. The Museum also has fine collections of British studio ceramics, and Scottish and French 19th and 20th century paintings. Also in the Museum complex is Coats Observatory, a unique attraction with astronomical equipment including a large telescope.
• The medieval Abbey is the jewel in Paisley's crown. It is known as the birthplace of the Stewart royal house. The Abbey is often the venue for music and performances of all sorts. In September 2009 an archaeological dig took place on the Abbey's great drain. For more information on the Abbey and the Drain:Paisley Abbey and the Great Drain (pdf 2MB)
• Paisley Central Library's local history unit is a first stop for family history researchers.
• The lively Arts Centre programmes a wide range of entertainment from drama and dance to comedy and film. Paisley Town Hall provides an impressive venue for live music, exhibitions and events.
• Sma' Shot Cottages, run by the Old Paisley Society, tell the story of the daily life of the town's weavers and later mill workers.
• Paisley Threadmill Museum, also run by a group of enthusiastic volunteers, has a wonderful collection of photographs, promotional material and machinery from the town's largest industrial complexes, the thread mills of J & P Coats and the Clark dynasty.

More information on the town's heritage and historic buildings is available from our Paisley history homepage.

Back to top



Walking opportunities

The town is worth exploring on foot. The streets are lined with fine buildings, a result of the wealth generated by the textile industries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

There are guides to the buildings designed by four of Paisley's best architects and to Paisley's public sculptures. Two general walks around the town are also available.

Abbey Walk (pdf - 246KB).
High Street Walk (pdf - 309KB)
Paisley Architects (pdf - 1.46MB)
Paisley Sculptures (pdf - 1.01MB)


You can download the Paisley Visitor Guide here:

Paisley Visitor Guide (pdf 696 KB)

Warning! Some of the documents may take some time to download due to file size. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files. Download Acrobat Reader here.

For further details of walks in Renfrewshire visit our walks information page.

Getting here
Paisley has superb rail links with Glasgow, Ayrshire and the Clyde coast. Trains run every few minutes from Glasgow Central Station. There are frequent bus services from Glasgow and surrounding towns. Getting here by air couldn't be easier - Glasgow International Airport is just over 2 miles (3.6 kilometres) from Paisley town centre!

Staying here
Information on where to stay is available from VisitScotland.



Contact us:

• email: econdev@renfrewshire.gov.uk
• phone: 0300 300 0144
• fax: 0141 618 7935
• call or write to:
  Planning and Transport
  Renfrewshire House
  Cotton Street
  Paisley
  PA1 1LL

Back to top