Renfrew Castle Kings Inch

The Kings Inch is supposedly the site of the first Renfrew Castle, and was a low-lying river island in the Clyde. This may, however, be because at a later date the Ross family, appointed constables of the castle, erected a tower house near here called Inch Castle. What is clear is that any castle here would have been very short-lived as the island was granted to Paisley Abbey in the third quarter of the 12th century.

As the island was not granted back to the Stewards until 1208/1213, when they had erected a castle at Castlehill, the Kings Inch was not the site of the medieval castle of Renfrew, and although it is possible that it housed a castle at the time Somerled attacked Renfrew in 1164, there is no mention of a castle. As the site was repeatedly built over, including by a power station, and trace of the castle has long since been lost, and the site is now covered by a housing development.

HES Canmore database entry
See also article on Castlehill site