Dundee is a city I have come to know quite late on in my life, despite having a soft spot for Dundee United since their great domestic and European exploits of the 1980s. Despite having its share of social problems as a consequence of its loss of industrial jobs, in particular the decline of the jute industry which was the source of much of the city’s wealth in the nineteeth and twentieth centuries, Dundee has many attractive features. Much of the city faces south onto the Tay estuary (William McGonagall’s ‘Silvery Tay’), helping to give one of the city’s nicknames of ‘Sunny Dunny’.
The eastern fringes of the city are adjacent to North Sea beaches at Broughty Ferry and Monifieth. To the north are the Sidlaw Hills and a little further, the under-appreciated Angus Glens which act as a non-vehicular gateway to the vast and high Cairngorm Plateau.
Dundee seems to be about the right size for a city, large enough to have a good selection of cultural and sporting attractions, but not so large that one feels adrift in an anonymous metropolis.
Dundee also boasts one of the world’s most famous bridges, although sadly its fame stems largely from tragedy. The original Tay Railway Bridge, constructed in 1857, collapsed in a storm on 27th December 1879 with the loss of 75 lives in the train that was crossing at the time. The bridge was subsequently reconstructed with greater tolerance for severe weather, but the pillars of its doomed predecessor are still visible at low tide.
The Tay Road Bridge, built in 1965, is an altogether more straight-laced affair (being very much dead straight!), but can occasionally provide some visual interest. Apart from the bridges, Dundee’s history has left it with some interesting industrial and civic architecture. The city is also home to RRS Discovery, a wooden, three-masted ship that took Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first journey to the Antarctic.
More recently the development of Dundee’s riverfront has introduced some new architecture in the form of the Dundee V&A building, designed by the renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Another newcomer is the steel ‘Dundee Whale’ sculpture, complete with sound effects.
To see more images of Dundee go to my Dundee Gallery.