East Kilbride is a large suburban town in the South Lanarkshire council area of Scotland. It is Scotland's first new town, and lies on high ground on the south side of the Cathkin Braes, about southeast of Glasgow city centre. The Rotten Calder river flows along the east side of the settlement, northwards toward the River Clyde.

East Kilbride does not lie within the Greater Glasgow urban area, although it does lie within the Greater Glasgow metropolitan area,Fact: date=September 2008 and it has recently replaced Paisley as Scotland's most populous town.

History

East Kilbride takes its name from an Irish saint, St Bride (or Brigit) who founded a monastery for nuns and monks in Kildare, Ireland in the 6th century. Irish monks introduced her cult to Scotland. Kil, from the Gaelic cill, means church or burial place.

The area of East Kilbride is home to a river valley which, apart from the Avon Gorge, is unique in the way it was formed. A river usually starts off narrow, fast-flowing, with steep cliffs, and in the hills. This is the youth of the river. Later once the river reaches flat land it begins to widen and meander and flow slower. This is the river's middle age. Calderglen is interesting in that it flows fast, has steep cliffs and is fairly narrow (youth stage) but also meanders. The Rotten Calder therefore has its river youth after its middle age, as the river source is on flatter land and is meandering and slow flowing.

Calderglen was in the past celebrated as a picturesque wooded valley. It was the home of a noble family known as the Maxwells of Calderwood who resided in Calderwood Castle. The remnants of Calderwood Castle were demolished in 1951.

The original parish church was located on the site of a pre-Christian sacred well, which is possibly the origin of the association with St. Brigit, since the well was dedicated to the Celtic goddess whose traditions the reverence of St. Brigit has continued. Over the centuries the church has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. As a result its current location has moved from its original site by about 50 m. The original site, and site of the sacred well, ironically lies under a property that was until recently an off-sales/liquor store.Fact: date=February 2007

The presence of the oystercatcher bird in the coat of arms could arises because this bird was considered sacred to both St. Brigit and her pre-Christian antecedent or because it was part of the Lindsey family crest - which had local connections

East Kilbride grew from a small village of around 900 inhabitants in 1930 to become eventually a large burgh. Behind this growth lay the rapid industrialisation of the nineteenth century which left much of the working population throughout Scotland's central belt from Glasgow to Edinburgh living in the housing stock built at the end of that century but accommodating far more people. The Great War postponed any better housing as did the Treaty of Versailles and the period of post war settlement it created. In turn this was followed by the Great Depression. After the Second World War, Glasgow, already suffering from chronic shortages of housing, had to deal with bomb damage from the war.