A substantial housing development in W Central Renfrewshire, Craigends lies on the south bank of the River Gryfe, opposite Crosslee, a mile (1.5 km) southeast of Houston and 2 miles (3 km) northwest of Johnstone. Built in the policies of the former Craigends House from 1967, it quickly became one of the largest private housing developments in the west of Scotland.
Craigends House had been constructed in 1857 for Alexander Cuninghame, the 16th Laird of Craigends, to the designs of David Bryce (1803-76). With the death of the widow of the last laird in 1958, the contents of the house were sold off in the early 1960s and the house partially demolished in 1967, with the remaining portion removed in 1971.