Paisley is Scotland’s largest town and a lively place to be. Explore cultural delights such as the Museum and Art Gallery, Arts Centre, the 12th century Abbey, and the largest Baptist Church in Europe, Thomas Coats Memorial Church. There is also an array of cafes, bars, restaurants and clubs while activities such as golfing, cycling, ice-skating and swimming will appeal to active types, making this an ideal place to visit.

 

There is also a wide range of shops in the town centre or, just a short 10-minute trip into Glasgow - one of the UK's best shopping venues. Alternatively, there are two vast shopping malls close by (Braehead and Silverburn); both within easy reach and just short car/bus journeys from the town centre.

Paisley is served by excellent bus and train services, Paisley is only 7 miles (12 km) west of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and just an hour away from Scotland's capital city, Edinburgh.  It is 10 mins by taxi from Glasgow International Airport and 30 minutes away from Glasgow Prestwick Airport by road or rail  It is 15-20  minutes walk from Paisley Gilmour Street, train station:

 

By Car:  Leave the M8 at Paisley and follow signs to UWS University

 

By Train: Gilmour Street Station 

 

By Bus: Bus to Paisley Town Centre

 

By Air: Glasgow International Airport and then a taxi.

 

The Industrial Revolution saw Paisley transform from a small market town to an important industrial town in the late 18th century thanks to the rapid growth of the textiles industry. Its location attracted English mill owners and immigrants from Ayrshire and the Highlands poured in to a town that offered paying jobs to women and children.

 

However, silk fell out of fashion 1790. The mills switched to the imitation Kashmir (cashmere) shawls called "Paisley." Under the leadership of Thomas Coats (1809-1893), Paisley became the world centre for thread making. The high-status skilled weavers mobilized themselves in radical protests after 1790 culminating in the failed "Radical War" of 1820. Overproduction, the collapse of the shawl market and a general depression in the textile industry led to technical changes that reduced the importance of weavers. Politically the mill owners remained in control of the town.

 

By the mid-19th century weaving had become the town's principal industry. The Paisley weavers' most famous product were the shawls, which bore the Paisley Pattern made fashionable after being worn by a young Queen Victoria. Despite being of a Kashmiri design and manufactured in other parts of Europe, the teardrop-like pattern soon became known by Paisley's name across the western world. Although the shawls dropped out of fashion in the 1870s, the Paisley pattern remains an important symbol of the town: the Paisley Museum maintains a significant collection of the original shawls in this design and it has been used, for example, in the modern logo of Renfrewshire Council, the local authority.