The Paisley Canal (sometimes referred to as the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal, or the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal) used to link Port Eglinton in Glasgow to Johnstone via Paisley. It was intended to go all the way to Ardrossan, but it was never built beyond Johnstone. It was opened in 1811 and carried passengers as well as various goods between the three towns for 70 years.
A major disaster occurred on the canal at Paisley in 1810, before the section to Glasgow was completed. A barge capsized as too many people tried to board it at once, resulting in 84 deaths as people got trapped underneath or were unable to swim.
In 1881, the canal was converted into a railway, which followed its route almost all the way from Glasgow to Johnstone. The railway was later closed in 1983, but has now been reopened as far as Paisley. The section beyond has mostly been turned into a cycle path. Little remains of the canal itself, but the White Cart Aqueduct still carries trains across the river, and a section of canal remains in water at the former Ferguslie Thread Works where the railway took a different line.
More information on the Paisley Canal will be added in the future.