Life returned to Paisley's paradise after town's factories closed down

WE REVISIT DEREK PARKER'S RAMBLES THROUGH RENFREWSHIRE

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Up until about 300 years ago what is now Paisley town centre was a pastoral paradise.

The medieval abbey towered in architectural splendour above green meadows and the medieval monks’ slab-studded graveyard.

Its weathered walls were mirrored in the silvery shallows of the River Cart where otters swam below the Hammills waterfall, salmon leaped, kingfishers plunged into pools to seize minnows and long-legged herons speared trout and frogs among the reeds.

Before Celtic evangelist St Mirin introduced Christianity during the seventh century, the rural realm was Paisley's pagan citadel.