East Kilbride

East Kilbride (/ ... kɪlˈbraɪd/; Scottish Gaelic: Cille Bhrìghde an Ear [ˈkʲʰiʎə ˈvɾʲiːtʲə əɲ ˈɛɾ]), often referred to as EK, is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland, and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. Historically a small village, it was designated Scotland's first "new town" on 6 May 1947, and thereafter widely expanded. The area lies on a raised plateau to the south of the Cathkin Braes, about eight miles (thirteen kilometres) southeast of Glasgow and close to the boundary with East Renfrewshire.

The town ends close to the White Cart Water to the west and is bounded by the Rotten Calder Water to the east. Immediately to the north of the modern town centre is The Village, the part of East Kilbride that existed before its post-war development into a New Town. East Kilbride is twinned with the town of Ballerup, in Denmark.

The earliest-known evidence of occupation in the area dates as far back as the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, as archaeological investigation has demonstrated that burial cairns in the district began as ceremonial or ritual sites of burial during the Neolithic, with the use of cup-marked, and other inscribed stones at key elevated sites, only to be later built upon with earth and re-used for burial into the Bronze Age.

These findings have found further support through ongoing research indicating that many East Kilbride Cairns first noticed by the Reverend David Ure in his History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride (1793), are embedded, alongside other monuments, into a ritual landscape related to ancestor cults and relationships with key topographical features and annual solar events. A flint arrow head was discovered by Allan Forrest, a then child resident whilst groundworks were taking place in his family's garden at Glen Bervie, St Leonards in 1970 which later was identified as dating to 1500 BC (Bronze Age).

Prehistoric – possibly Roman – graves have also been found near the Kype Water close to town of Strathaven, some distance from East Kilbride but suggesting a Roman context for the wider area. Roman coins, footwear, and a Romano-British oil lamp have also been found in the area.

East Kilbride traditionally takes its name from an Irish saint named St Bride (or Brigit), who may have founded a monastery for nuns and monks in Kildare in Leinster, Ireland, in the 6th century. Dál Riatan monks afterwards introduced her order to parts of Scotland, although the origins of the East Kilbride example - situated in the West of Scotland, is less certain due to a lack of early historical or linguistic involvement with Dalriada.

The Scots anglicisation kil takes its root from the Gaelic cille, borrowed from the Latin for cell or chapel, of St Brigit. the use of cille to mark a probable dedication to an Irish saint in this part of Scotland is problematic due to linguistic dating issues, but some analysis suggests that churches with cille place-names in the south west represent an early and short-lived influx of Irish church influence in or before the eighth century, which may or may not have involved the Céilí Dé who were monastics. However, it has been suggested by Prof. T. O. Clancy and others that cille place-names in the region, including the East Kilbride example, may instead relate to the main period of Gaelic cultural influx in the period post 900 AD.

The original parish church was located on what may have been a site of a pre-Christian significance, and tentatively the origin of the association with St Brigit, since the site may be dedicated to the Celtic goddess Brigid, whose traditions have been continued through the reverence of St Brigit brought on by the Celtic Church. However, this view is unpopular amongst academic audiences due to a complete lack of evidence supporting such earlier origins, thus making it an unfalsifiable concept.