Gleniffer, Braes of, a range of trap hills in the S of Abbey parish, Renfrewshire, culminating 3 ¼ miles SSW of Paisley at Sergeantlaw (749 feet). A rough and undulating country - masses of grey crag interspersed with whinny knolls - they embosom the reservoirs of the Paisley Waterworks, formed in 1837-81, and are seamed by pretty ravines, each with its brawling stream. Upon these braes the poet Tannahill, who wedded them to song, was wont to stray on week-day evenings or on the Sabbath day, musing on the various objects of beauty scattered profusely around. Here it was he noted 'the breer wi' its saft faulding blossom,' 'the craw flower s early bell,' and 'the birk wi' its mantle o' green.' Here he now listened to the warble of the mavis rising from 'the shades of Stanely-shaw,' now gazed, with rapt delight, on the gorgeous scenery of the lower Clyde, his native town in the foreground, and the far-away frontier Grampians.—Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.
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