Other Stuff
GOOD THINGS TO SEE AND DO IN DUNDEE
HM FRIGATE UNICORN, VICTORIA DOCK
An old wooden 46-gun warship launched in 1824 which creaks and groans so much it often sounds like it's trying to tell a story. Or perhaps it's just lonely, for there are precious few other craft nearby. My advice is to go on board, creep as far down into the hold as you are permitted, and listen real close. For if this ship has a story to tell, you can bet your bottom dollar that it's going to be a story worth listening to.
An old wooden 46-gun warship launched in 1824 which creaks and groans so much it often sounds like it's trying to tell a story. Or perhaps it's just lonely, for there are precious few other craft nearby. My advice is to go on board, creep as far down into the hold as you are permitted, and listen real close. For if this ship has a story to tell, you can bet your bottom dollar that it's going to be a story worth listening to.
VERDANT WORKS, WEST HENDERSON'S WYND
This is where you go to find out all about jute and its importance to the development of the city. I'd strongly advise you to pay the Verdant Works a visit before anywhere else, because although there is no longer a jute industry in Dundee you never know how pub conversations are going to go and you may well find yourself cornered is some hostelry by someone whose sole raison d'être is to tell everyone who comes in about the history of jute. Being able to counter with, 'I know what jute is,' in a big manly voice will send the chap scurrying for cover.
Joking aside, Verdant Works is an excellent visitor attraction. It is housed in an early nineteenth century jute mill. As soon as you step through the big works gate you know you're in the past. This is the real thing, complete with various atmospheric stone buildings huddled around a small cobbled yard. Although it might feel like a small industrial concern when you're standing in the yard, at one time Verdant Works 'ran three steam engines driving seventy power looms and 2,800 spindles. In the mid-Victorian period Verdant Works was the sixteenth largest employer in Dundee's jute industry, employing 500 people.' Not to be missed.
This is where you go to find out all about jute and its importance to the development of the city. I'd strongly advise you to pay the Verdant Works a visit before anywhere else, because although there is no longer a jute industry in Dundee you never know how pub conversations are going to go and you may well find yourself cornered is some hostelry by someone whose sole raison d'être is to tell everyone who comes in about the history of jute. Being able to counter with, 'I know what jute is,' in a big manly voice will send the chap scurrying for cover.
Joking aside, Verdant Works is an excellent visitor attraction. It is housed in an early nineteenth century jute mill. As soon as you step through the big works gate you know you're in the past. This is the real thing, complete with various atmospheric stone buildings huddled around a small cobbled yard. Although it might feel like a small industrial concern when you're standing in the yard, at one time Verdant Works 'ran three steam engines driving seventy power looms and 2,800 spindles. In the mid-Victorian period Verdant Works was the sixteenth largest employer in Dundee's jute industry, employing 500 people.' Not to be missed.
RRS DISCOVERY, DISCOVERY QUAY
The 'Discovery' is a vessel with Captain Scott links. It did indeed carry him and his crew on his National Arctic Expedition between 1901 and 1904, so this is the real deal. Inside, or on board, is a pleasing mixture of wooden bed bunks that look too small (well, people were much smaller in the old days - I understand Scott was a mere two foot two), and deep echoey holds with coils of old rope and barrels of stuff.
The 'Discovery' is a vessel with Captain Scott links. It did indeed carry him and his crew on his National Arctic Expedition between 1901 and 1904, so this is the real deal. Inside, or on board, is a pleasing mixture of wooden bed bunks that look too small (well, people were much smaller in the old days - I understand Scott was a mere two foot two), and deep echoey holds with coils of old rope and barrels of stuff.
THE HOWFF, WARD ROAD
The Howff is a graveyard in Dundee city centre, and not what you might term a tourist attraction. But I actually like wandering around graveyards. They impart a real flavour of what the town or city is all about, and give a good idea about past industries. As far as graveyards go, this one is utterly charming. It goes back as far as 1564, and as well as the headstones there are cobbled walkways, colourful beds of flowers, and those droopy sad trees that you often find in such places. It's really quite magical. As you wander around it soon becomes apparent that the River Tay has played a major role in the city's past. There are a good number of headstones with carved ships, and those buried therein are either mariners or boatmen or ship-masters. On one you will find this touching epitaph: 'Through stormy seas of trouble past, I've found a peaceful shore, From tempests safe I'm moor'd at last, And leave my port no more.'
The Howff is a graveyard in Dundee city centre, and not what you might term a tourist attraction. But I actually like wandering around graveyards. They impart a real flavour of what the town or city is all about, and give a good idea about past industries. As far as graveyards go, this one is utterly charming. It goes back as far as 1564, and as well as the headstones there are cobbled walkways, colourful beds of flowers, and those droopy sad trees that you often find in such places. It's really quite magical. As you wander around it soon becomes apparent that the River Tay has played a major role in the city's past. There are a good number of headstones with carved ships, and those buried therein are either mariners or boatmen or ship-masters. On one you will find this touching epitaph: 'Through stormy seas of trouble past, I've found a peaceful shore, From tempests safe I'm moor'd at last, And leave my port no more.'
THE WISHART ARCH, COWGATE
This is not what you might strictly term a tourist attraction either, but it is without question something to visit, perhaps touch, but above all else to think long and hard about. For this old city gateway was used by the Reformer George Wishart in 1544 as a pulpit. As if it wasn't dangerous enough preaching during a period of such religious upheaval, in that year Dundee was also decimated by the plague. You might have to ask a few folk how to get to Wishart's Arch, but make the effort. Old bits of stone deserve our attention.
This is not what you might strictly term a tourist attraction either, but it is without question something to visit, perhaps touch, but above all else to think long and hard about. For this old city gateway was used by the Reformer George Wishart in 1544 as a pulpit. As if it wasn't dangerous enough preaching during a period of such religious upheaval, in that year Dundee was also decimated by the plague. You might have to ask a few folk how to get to Wishart's Arch, but make the effort. Old bits of stone deserve our attention.
THE McMANUS, ALBERT SQUARE
The McManus is Dundee's main art gallery and museum. You go here to learn about the general history of Dundee and see all sorts of nice arty things. It's what I would call a traditional museumy museum. But it's really much more than that. The building itself is an architectural joy. It was built in 1867, and regarded as the 'largest monument to Prince Albert outside London'. You could spend no small amount of time simply circling the exterior admiring the fine Gothic style and the statues that sit around it in Albert Square. I believe the building may have served a number of functions over the years, and as such has a number of entrances. There is a grand curving stairs entrance, and another whose interior hallway once provided a jaw-dropping welcome of architectural extravagance. Recent renovation at The McManus has seen a new entrance being constructed. Now, instead of that grand smack in the mouth that instantly told you you were in some place more than a tad special, you have an entrance that makes the visitor momentarily wonder if he has inadvertently wandered into a cafe.
Inside, as well as the truly magnificent Albert Hall, you may see such thought-provoking exhibits as a carriage window from the very train involved in the Tay Bridge disaster back in 1879. One may pause and wonder what horrors the person sitting at that window had to face as the bridge collapsed and the train plunged into the river. Like Verdant Works, this should not be missed.
The McManus is Dundee's main art gallery and museum. You go here to learn about the general history of Dundee and see all sorts of nice arty things. It's what I would call a traditional museumy museum. But it's really much more than that. The building itself is an architectural joy. It was built in 1867, and regarded as the 'largest monument to Prince Albert outside London'. You could spend no small amount of time simply circling the exterior admiring the fine Gothic style and the statues that sit around it in Albert Square. I believe the building may have served a number of functions over the years, and as such has a number of entrances. There is a grand curving stairs entrance, and another whose interior hallway once provided a jaw-dropping welcome of architectural extravagance. Recent renovation at The McManus has seen a new entrance being constructed. Now, instead of that grand smack in the mouth that instantly told you you were in some place more than a tad special, you have an entrance that makes the visitor momentarily wonder if he has inadvertently wandered into a cafe.
Inside, as well as the truly magnificent Albert Hall, you may see such thought-provoking exhibits as a carriage window from the very train involved in the Tay Bridge disaster back in 1879. One may pause and wonder what horrors the person sitting at that window had to face as the bridge collapsed and the train plunged into the river. Like Verdant Works, this should not be missed.
RATING
FREE
ENTRY
ENTRY
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