Factfile

■ Sir William Wallace was born in 1270 at Elderslie. It was here at Paisley Abbey that he was given an education by the monks. Following his resounding victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, Wallace was to become the “Guardian of Scotland”.

■ The textile industry is inextricably woven into the history of Paisley and Renfrewshire – not only through its famed Paisley pattern and Paisley shawls, but particularly through the manufacture of thread. It’s a story well told at the Thread Mill Museum.

■ Paisley may be a large town, but its historic heart is easily explored on foot and boasts the greatest concentration of listed buildings outside Edinburgh.

■ Paisley can claim a special connection with Robert Burns through its own poet Robert Tannahill, as it was he who founded the oldest constituted Burns Club in the world here in 1805.