Council area · Scotland
Renfrewshire
Explore a strand of Renfrewshire’s textile history through Paisley’s Sma’ Shot Cottages and the story of its shawl weavers.
Quick facts
- Type of place
- Council area
- Nation
- Scotland
- Official identifier
- gss:S12000038
- Part of
- Scotland (Nation)
Overview
Renfrewshire is a council area in Scotland. Paisley’s Sma’ Shot Cottages offer one local example of its heritage, bringing textile work and home life into the same account. An eighteenth-century weaver’s cottage and the home of a nineteenth-century mill foreman show different aspects of this history.
Renfrewshire is a council area in Scotland.
Population and demographics
- Land area
- 261.49 km²
-
Figures for . NRS mid-2025 administrative areas; land area from ONS SAM through 31 December 2024.
National Records of Scotland · nrs-mid-2025 · Table 4!E30 (binary spreadsheet decimal rounded to 6 dp). Released 14 July 2026.
Open Government Licence v3.0 · Source: National Records of Scotland. Crown copyright; Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Population
- 189,270 people
-
Figures for . NRS mid-2025 administrative areas; land area from ONS SAM through 31 December 2024.
National Records of Scotland · nrs-mid-2025 · Table 1!E32. Released 14 July 2026.
Open Government Licence v3.0 · Source: National Records of Scotland. Crown copyright; Open Government Licence v3.0.
Population density: 723.8 people per km²
Calculated from the population and land area for 30 June 2025, using figures from the same release and covering the same boundaries.
Weavers, households and Sma’ Shot Day
The weaver’s cottage contains original looms. Across the yard, the home of a foreman from a nearby mid-nineteenth-century mill includes a kitchen, living spaces, bedrooms, a children’s room and a parlour. The rooms represent domestic life from the later nineteenth century into the early twentieth. The site also explains Sma’ Shot Day, traditionally held in July. It recalls a dispute between shawl weavers and manufacturers that ended in a victory for the workers. This Paisley story provides a specific textile-history focus for the council-area profile.