Rutherglen remains the oldest royal burgh in Scotland , being more than 500 years older than Glasgow . It was a center of heavy industry , having a long coal mining tradition which died out by 1950 , and was until the 1960s home to the infamous White 's chemical works , which was responsible for huge swathes of the area from southern Glasgow across to the town of Cambuslang being polluted with chromium waste . Rutherglen was a center of heavy industry , having a long coal mining tradition which died out by 1950 .