City Of Dundee, Scotland
Scotland's fourth city, Dundee is a main
station on the UK east coast line, has an excellent motorway link, a thriving regional
airport and is now a cruise ship port.
Dundee is set at the mouth of the river Tay, which flows from Loch Tay near Kenmore, high
in the wilderness of Perthshire. By the time it gets to the city of Dundee, it has become
a tidal estuary, flowing into the North Sea.
The population is boosted during academic term times when over 34,000 people study either
in the city's two universities or its local college. Dundee has more young people in full
time higher education per head of population than any other in Scotland
Dundee was granted it's first Charter as a Royal Burgh, at the end of the 12th Century,
reflecting it's flourishing trade with Flanders and the Baltic ports at that time. Even in
these days, textiles, in the form of flax, linen and wool, were important.
By the 1830's, jute was beginning to be produced, initially to supplement linen, but soon
became the principal product employing great numbers of Dundonians and remained so,
gradually declining from the 1920's. Many of the jute mills of the period have survived,
converted for housing and other uses, while the Verdant Works in the Blackness area to the
West of the town centre is now The Museum of Dundee.
Well worth a visit is Discovery Point, home of Captain Scott's famous polar exploration
ship RRS Discovery.
Discovery was one of the last wooden three-masted ships built in Britain and the first to
be constructed specifically for scientific research. Her launch in 1901 was the beginning
of an adventure that would forever secure her a place in the heroic age of polar
exploration. Since Discovery returned to Dundee a major programme of restoration has
been undertaken by Dundee Heritage Trust.
In 1878 the Tay Rail Bridge was built, but on the evening of 28th December the following
year during a severe storm, the centre section of the bridge collapsed, while a train was
crossing, taking the passengers and crew to a watery grave. The current rail bridge was
completed in 1887. Many of the piers of the original bridge however are still visible.