This last May, after many years of traveling across Scotland, I finally managed to visit Dundee. Dundee is Scotland’s fourth-largest city after Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen, and anchors Angus along the Firth of Tay. Dundee rose to prominence during the Industrial Revolution and became famous for its ship-building and jute production. As industry waned Dundee entered a down-turn, and for a long time the city wasn’t really on the radar of Scotland’s tourists.
That’s all changing.
Over the last 20 years, Dundee has begun the march into modernity and now boasts several high-profile attractions, including the new V&A Museum and the RSS Discovery, and a thriving, young, educated population at the forefront of modern industries such as video game design. I’ll be writing much more about Dundee in the months ahead, but whenever I visit a city for the first time I always try to get a sense of its history first. For that I turn to walking tours.
I was keyed into DD Tours by Dundee PR treasure Jennie Patterson. DD Tours are Stewart and Louise, a couple of amazing Dundonian amateur historians who ran a website called Dark Dundee for several years before offering walking tours recounting Dundee’s darkest moments. Earlier this year they expanded their walking tour offerings to include perhaps less grim yet still fun and engaging jaunts around the city.
My experience with Stewart and Louise coincided with a brilliant blue-sky evening in early May as we gathered for the Dead Centre tour, which focuses on disease, death, executions, and body-snatching in the heart of Dundee. Nothing like a corpse’s clammy embrace for a welcome!
The Howff marked the starting point of the tour. This burial ground stands in the heart of Dundee and was granted by none other than Mary, Queen of Scots. Here Stewart and Louise regaled us with sordid tales of cholera and grave robbers. Dundee had some particularly nasty water and the cholera spread quickly through houses and neighborhoods. The graveyards, cemeteries, and burial grounds filled up equally fast, perhaps making the jobs of grave robbers easier than anticipated. The pay was decent, but the work was back-breaking, gruesome, and dangerous. Police and disease were real deterrents.
We took our time in the Howff as Stewart and Louise played off each other with practiced expertise. Their discerning eye for the gory bits of Dundee’s history unspooled among the sun-dappled gravestones and sheltering trees with panache and zeal, the laughs and cringes keeping us warm on this chilly day. I wandered amongst the headstones and learned more than a thing or two thanks to my guides. If you’ve ever been to an older graveyard you’ll certainly see some graves with stone slabs laying flat over the grave. This was a tactic used to deter potential grave robbers from stealing the dearly departed. Yikes!
As we wended our way out of the Howff from beneath blossoming trees and the setting sun, it was interesting to hear that burial grounds often rose in height with extended usage. Yeah, uh, that’s disturbing. Don’t think too hard about what lies beneath the Howff’s emerald grasses.
The tour continued a short way through the center of Dundee to the city square, making the total walking distance of the tour negligible and easy. In the city square Stewart and Louise pointed out old stones and plaques from earlier versions of Dundee’s city center, including connections to Vikings who most certainly settled here long ago.
DD Tours’s Dead Centre walking tour was an enjoyable hour in the center of Dundee with Stewart and Louise. It was a real pleasure get an inside and historical look at Dundee from these friendly Dundonians. Parsing Stewart’s accent was also fun!
Dundee is on the rise and DD Tours are a great entry point for any visitor. Come check it out!
Disclosure: DD Tours provided me with a complimentary Dead Centre tour. All thoughts and opinions expressed here, as always, are my own.