About the town » Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, Great Britain

Johnstone (Scots: Johnstoun, Scottish Gaelic: Baile Iain) is a town in the council area of Renfrewshire and larger historic county of the same name in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town lies 3 miles (5 km) west of neighbouring Paisley and 12 miles (19 km) west of the centre of the city of Glasgow. Part of the biggest conurbation in Scotland, Johnstone is at the western edge of the Greater Glasgow Urban Area. The town was a planned community created in the latter half of the 18th century by the local Laird, George Ludovic Houston who held an estate in the town, the remains of which are known as Johnstone Castle. Industrial development brought coal mining, thread-making and cotton weaving to Johnstone causing it to grow considerably in size, expanding out in the 1930s with a number of newly built residential areas which addressed the problem of population density in the historic area of the town. Today it supports a small commercial centre and serves as a commuter settlement for Paisley and Glasgow.