[2] Clyde Iron was the location of a key development in the Industrial Revolution in Scotland when James Beaumont Neilson successfully introduced the hot blast furnace in 1828, reducing the volume and carbon content of coal needed in the furnaces to produce the iron, which in turn meant that Scottish metal became cheaper to produce using local coal.
Ironstone was obtained from Monklands and coal from local pits across Lanarkshire such as in Carmyle and Cambuslang[3] via connecting industrial railway lines, until the supply from those sources was eventually exhausted.
In 1931 Clyde Iron was overtaken by Colvilles and extensively modernised; shortly afterwards in 1939 the works was integrated with the nearby Clydebridge Steelworks (producing both the hot metal and the finished steel).
During the 1980s the site was cleared (other than a few remaining small buildings close to Junction 2A of the M74 motorway) by the Glasgow Development Agency and Scottish Enterprise[8] and is now an industrial estate (Glasgow East Investment Park, sometimes referred to as Cambuslang Investment Park although it is not in Cambuslang) that includes the local Royal Mail distribution centre, and the printing facility of newspapers including The Herald and Evening Times, opened in 2002.
[9] Tollcross was also home to another steelworks (a tube plant that was part of the Stewarts & Lloyds empire) which too has closed and been cleared, with housing now on that site.