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Inchinnan (old forms, Inchienum, Inchenane, Inchinan; Gael. inch, an island, and Inan, the patron saint; in Bajimont's Roll the name is Kilinan). A small parish on the north-eastern border of Renfrewshire, adjoining the river Clyde. It is bounded NE by the Clyde (which divides it from New Kilpatrick in Dumbartonshire), E and SE by Renfrew, SW by Kilbarchan and Houston, and W and NW by Erskine. The boundary on the NE is formed by the Clyde for a distance of 2 3/8 miles, on the E and SE by the Cart and the Black Cart for a distance of 3 1/4 miles, and at the WS corner by the Gryfe for 3 1/2 furlongs. Along the W it is purely artificial. Near the centre of the Cart, before its confluence with the Clyde, is a small island called Colin's Isle. At this point, according to local tradition, a vessel once stranded, and long before the litigation due to this had ended, the mud and silt had so gathered around the wreck as to form a small island covered with thriving young firs. The extreme length of the parish from North Barr on the N to the junction of the Cart and Gryfe on the S is 2 7/8 miles, and the extreme breadth from the mouth of the Black Cart straight westward is 3 1/4 miles. The total area is 3527 acres, of which 60 are foreshore and 136 are water. The height rises gradually from the Clyde southwards and westwards. On the SE the height is from 12 to 20 feet, and it rises to 52 feet at the Free church, near the centre of the parish, and to 182 near Craigend. About eight-ninths of the parish is under cultivation, and the rest is woodland, roads, houses, etc., there being no waste. The soil is excellent, consisting chiefly of strong productive clay, and in the lower parts of rich loam. The underlying rocks are carboniferous, and consist of sandstone, limestone, coal, and volcanic rocks. Basalt has been extensively worked since 1760 for the construction of jetties, etc., and there are also quarries of sandstone and limestone, both of good quality. The centre of the parish is about 9 miles distant from Glasgow, and 13 from Greenock. The parish is traversed by the roads from Paisley to Greenock, and from Renfrew to Greenock. The Renfrew section of the Glasgow and South-Western railway passes close to the E side of the parish, and the Paisley and Greenock section of the Caledonian traverses the SW corner, while most parts are accessible from the Renfrew, Houston, or Bishopton stations. The Paisley and Greenock road crosses the Black Cart by Barnsford Bridge, and the Renfrew and Greenock road crosses both the Black and White Cart about 30 yards above their junction by Inchinnan Bridge. The prospect from this point is very beautiful, including `the meeting of the waters,' which, after a brief union, are absorbed in the bosom of the Clyde at the `Water-neb,' about half-a-mile to the south. For several hundred yards before the Cart and Gryffe intermingle, they are only separated from each other by a narrow strip of land, thickly covered with willows. The fine plantations of Blythswood also lend an air of sylvan grandeur to the spot, and materially heighten the loveliness of the picture. Pennant said in reference to the scenery in this vicinity, that it was `the most elegant and softest of any in North Britain.' Here there was formerly a public ferry; and an adjoining property is still known as Ferrycroft. In 1759 a bridge of nine arches was built across the river below the junction of the two streams. It was also connected by a side arch with the point between the streams, and cost only £1450. The foundations, however, were bad, and the whole structure gave way in 1809. The new bridge above the junction was completed in 1812 at an expense of £17,000. It is composed of two divisions, not in the same straight line, but forming nearly a right angle, each section crossing one of the streams almost at a right angle also. It was at the ford here that Argyll was captured in 1685. After the dispersion of his troops in Dumbartonshire the Earl crossed the Clyde, and, disguised as a countryman, was endeavouring to make his escape towards Renfrew. He had just forded the Cart, which is in the immediate vicinity, when he was recognized and attacked by two militiamen. These he managed to keep at bay with the aid of his pistols, but, assistance coming up, he was ultimately wounded and disarmed. A large stone is shown on which tradition asserts the ill-fated nobleman leaned himself after his capture, and which is said to have been stained by the blood which flowed from his wounds. This interesting relic is within the policies of Blythswood, and is situated a few yards oil the road. It is a large sandstone, about 2 tons in weight, and had probably at a still earlier period formed the pedestal of a crucifix, or monumental pillar, as it is hewn into a form which would adapt it for such a purpose. It is elevated considerably, however, at one end, and is now thickly crusted over with mosses and lichens. There are certain veins of a ruddy nature in the stone, which in wet weather give a tinge of red to portions of its surface. These ruddy spots were supposed by the superstitious to be the effect of the sanguinary stains which it had received on the occasion alluded to. Although the parish takes its name from Inan, who was a confessor at Irvine in the 9th century, and was also patron saint of Beith, the church seems to have been dedicated to Saint Conval or Connal or Convallus, who taught Christianity here early in the 7th century. According to Fordun, who says he was the chief disciple of St. Mungo, and was famous for his virtues and miracles, his bones were buried at Inchenane; and Bede says his remains in a stately monument at Inchennan were held in great veneration in his day. According to the Aberdeen Breviary, Conval sailed miraculously from Ireland to the Clyde on a stone which remained on the bank of the Cart, and was known as Currus Sancti Convalli, and wrought miraculous cures on man and beast. A stone called St. Connalie's Stone stood near the ancient ford on the Renfrew side of the river, and is mentioned in the records of the burgh of Paisley in 1620. Mr. Motherwell (in notes to Renfrewshire Characters and Scenes) identifies it with the Argyll stone (see RENFREW), and thinks it was the pediment of a cross dedicated to St. Connal near his cell, and also marking the ford. The church was excepted from Walter Fitz-Allan's grant to the monastery of Paisley of all the churches of Strathgryfe, as he had already granted the church of Inchinnan with all its pertinents to the Knights Templars. On their suppression in 1312 it was transferred to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. After the Reformation the tithes, temple-lands, etc., passed to Lord Torphichen, and the temple-lands subsequently to Semple of Beltrees. The old church was on the site of the present building at the W end of Inchinnan bridge, and was a plain structure measuring 50 feet by 18, with very thick walls. It was built about 1100, and was pulled down in 1828, when the floor was found to be literally paved with skulls. Four tombstones, apparently remains of old stone coffins, with ridged tops, are called `the Templars' graves.' The ground known as Ladyacre was the endowment of the Virgin's altar in the old church. The lands of Inchinnan were granted by King Malcolm IV. to Walter, the High Steward, in 1158, but on the death of Matthew, fourth Earl of Lennox, in 1571, they reverted to the Crown, James VI. being the heir. He conferred them first on his uncle Charles, then on his grand-uncle Robert, afterwards Earl of March, and thereafter again on Esmé Stewart, Lord d'Aubigny, a cousin of his father. In 1672 Charles, sixth Duke of Lennox, dying without issue, the lands again reverted to the Crown, and were granted by Charles II. in 1680 to his natural son Charles Lennox, Duke of Lennox and Richmond, who sold them to the Duke of Montrose in the beginning of the 18th century, and he in 1737 sold them to Archibald Campbell of Blythswood, descended from the families of Ardkinlas and Douglas of Mains in Dumbartonshire, and in his line the property still remains. The manor-house stood about 2 furlongs N of North Barr House towards the Clyde, and seems to have been extensively altered and rebuilt about 1506 by Matthew, Lord Darnley, second Earl of Lennox, and to have received the name of `the palace,' which the site still bears. According to Crawford's History of Ren-frewshire, there were considerable remains of the building in 1710, but these had disappeared before the end of the century. The estate of North Barr was purchased originally in 1670 by Donald M`Gilchrist, who claimed descent from the Lord of Tarbart of Robert the Bruce's time. Part of it passed to the family of Balfour, but the greater part of it was in 1741 acquired by Lord Sempill, and again in 1798 by Mr. James Buchanan, who sold it to Lord Blantyre in 1812. An old baronial fortalice on it has since been demolished. South Barr was the property of the Boyds, and afterwards of the Alexanders, sprung from Claud Alexander of Ballochmyle. There is a good mansion-house, built in 1827, on the site of the old house, which was burned in 1826. Park House is a modern mansion. Robert Law, a Covenanting minister, whose curious Journal from 1638 to 1684 was edited in 1818 by C. K. Sharpe, was born in the parish. The post-town is Paisley. Sir Archibald Campbell of Blythswood (raised to the peerage as Baron Blythswood in 1892) is the principal proprietor. Inchinnan is in the presbytery of Paisley and the synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £328. The parish church, near the left bank of the Black Cart, 1 1/2 mile N by W of Renfrew, is a Gothic building with a square tower, and was opened in 1828. In 1886 it received an organ--the gift of Lord Blythswood. The Free church, built at the private cost of Mr. Henderson of Park, is 1 3/8 mile NW of the parish church. The public school, with accommodation for 135 children, has an average attendance of over 80, and a grant of about £80. Pop. (1755) 397, (1801) 462, (1831) 642, (1861) 619, (1871) 584, (1881) 608, (1891) 567. See Hugh Macdonald's Rambles round Glasgow.--Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.
Inkerman. A village in Abbey parish, 2 miles WNW of Paisley, under which it has a post office. It was founded about 1858 in connection with the working of ironstone mines, and like Balaklava in the same county, received its name from a battle of the Crimean war. Pop. (1881) 948, (1891) 699.
Innerkip or Inverkip. A village and a coast parish of W Renfrewshire. The village lies, completely buried among trees, on the left bank of the Kip, 3 furlongs above its influx to the Firth of Clyde and 1/4 mile NNE of Innerkip station on the Wemyss Bay section of the Caledonian railway, this being 2 1/4 miles N by E of Wemyss Bay, 5 3/4 SW of Upper Greenock, and 28 1/4 W by N of Glasgow. A little place, consisting chiefly of two long rows of houses on either side of the turnpike road, it has a post office, a hotel, a gas company, a constabulary station, a handsome parish church (1803) with clock-tower and spire, a Free church, and 7 furlongs to the N the Episcopal church of St. Michael and All Angels, the private chapel of the Shaw-Stewarts, whose mausoleum is in the old burying-ground. Innerkip was made a burgh of barony before the Union, with the right of holding three annual fairs; was often known as Auldkirk after the erection of the first church at GREENOCK (1592); and is memorable in connection with the witchcraft trials of 1662, already noticed under GOUROCK, and fully described in Sir George Mackenzie's Witches of Renfrewshire (1678; new ed., Paisley, 1878). The original parish church was granted to Paisley Abbey soon after its foundation in 1169, and was held by the monks down to the Reformation. Pop. of village (1861) 449, (1871) 637, (1881) 580, (1891) 526.
      The parish, containing also the town of GOUROCK and the stations of RAVENSCRAIG and WEMYSS BAY, is bounded W and N by the Firth of Clyde, E by Greenock, SE by Kilmalcolm, and S by Largs in Ayrshire. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 5 1/4 miles; its utmost width, from E to W, is 4 3/8 miles; and its area is 18,2371 acres, of which 279 are foreshore and 409 water. The coast-line, 9 1/2 miles long, is fringed by the narrow low platform of the firth's old sea-margin, and slightly indented by Gourock, West, Lunderston, Innerkip, and Wemyss Bay; its special features are treated under GOUROCK, CLOCH Point, and WEMYSS BAY. Inland the surface rises somewhat steeply to 478 feet at Barr Hill, 610 at Borneven Hill, 701 at White Hill, 907 at Leap Moor, 936 at DUNROD Hill, 910 at Scroggy Bank, and 1446 at Creuch Hill, whose summit, however, falls within Kilmalcolm. Loch Thom (1 3/4 x 1/2 mile) and four or five smaller reservoirs of the GREENOCK Waterworks lie close to the eastern border; Kelly Burn flows 3 3/4 miles west-south-westward to the firth along most of the Ayrshire boundary; and the Kip winds 4 miles westward through the interior, by the way receiving Spango and Daff Burns, the latter of which, from its source upon Leap Moor, hurries 1 1/2 mile north-north-westward along a rocky, richly-wooded glen. The landscape generally is very charming; and the views from the higher grounds are grand beyond description. The predominant rocks are Igneous and Upper Old Red sandstone. Craigmuschat quarry, near Gourock, for upwards of seventy years has yielded abundance of porphyritic greenstone, well adapted for paving; good building material is furnished by the sandstone, and excellent road-metal by dykes of trap. The soil is light and sandy along the shore, moister and verging to red gravel on the higher arable grounds, and moorish or moss on the uplands. Rather more than a third of the entire area is in tillage; 550 acres are under wood; and nearly all the remainder is either pasture or waste. Innerkip Castle is situated in the well-wooded grounds of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, and stands upon the edge of a cliff near the mansion-house of Ardgowan. It is said to be of a later date than the one standing here in the days of Bruce. A fragment only of it is left, the remains of the square tower. Other antiquities are noticed under Dunrod, Gourock, and LEVEN. Mansions, also noticed separately, are ARDGOWAN, Gourock House, KELLY House, and LEVEN Castle. Innerkip Glen is a charming spot, well-wooded, and with a stream running through the centre. The Wemyss Bay railway crosses the ravine or a lofty bridge of many piers. Including nearly the whole of Gourock quoad sacra parish and a portion of that of Skelmorlie, Innerkip is in the presbytery of Greenock and synod of Glasgow and Ayr; the living is worth £386. A public school, with accommodation for 229 children, has an average attendance of over 110, and a grant of about £120. Pop. (1801)1367, (1831) 2088, (1861) 3495, (1871) 4502, (1881) 5359, (1891) 6541, of whom 885 were in the ecclesiastical parish.--Ord. Sur., shs. 29, 30, 1873-66. See Gardner's Wemyss Bay, Innerkip, and Largs (Paisley, 1879).