Bishopton, a village, an estate, and a range of hills, in Erskine parish, Renfrewshire. The village stands 1 mile S of the Clyde, and has a station on the Glasgow and Greenock section of the Caledonian railway, 5 miles NNW of Paisley; at it are a Free church, 2 inns, and a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments. Pop. (1861) 341, (1871) 323, (1881) 308.-The estate belonged, from 1332 and earlier, till about 1671, to the family of Brisbane, passed through a number of hands, and is now the property of Lord Blantyre.-The hill range divides the banks of the Clyde from the lowlands of Gryfesdale; consists of compact trap rock, and is pierced by a tunnel of the Glasgow and Greenock railway. The tunnel is approached, at the two ends, by deep rock cuttings, respectively 748 and 946 yards long; consists of two reaches, respectively 320 and 340 yards long; and has, between these reaches, an open part 100 yards long, and 70 feet deep. The formation of this subterranean pas sage was a long and difficult process, engaging hundreds of workmen for years, and costing for gunpowder alone no less than about £12, 000.
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