Giffnock (/ˈɡɪfnək/; Scots: Giffnock; Scottish Gaelic: Giofnag, Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [kʲifnak]) is an affluent suburban town in East Renfrewshire set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. The wealthy town is also the birthplace of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The upmarket area lies 3.7 miles (6.0 km) east of Barrhead, 5.6 miles (9.0 km) east-southeast of Paisley and 5.3 miles (8.5 km) northwest of East Kilbride, at the southwest of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Giffnock is mentioned in documents as early as the seventeenth century as a scattered agricultural settlement. In the late eighteenth century, Archibald Montgomerie, the Earl of Eglinton, was forced to partition the land into a number of smaller properties.