Dundee

Dundee's name joins the Celtic dun, a fort, to an uncertain second element. Its growth as a seaport followed William the Lion's grant of the town to his brother David, Earl of Huntingdon, in the late 12th century, and it became a royal burgh when David's descendant John Balliol was crowned in 1292. English forces held it during the Wars of Independence until Robert the Bruce recaptured it in 1312. It was burned on English orders in 1548, besieged by Montrose in 1645 and sacked by George Monck's Parliamentarian army in 1651. In 1689 John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, raised the Stuart standard on the Law.

Medieval Dundee exported wool; its later fortune was jute. Discovering that the coarse Bengal fibre could be softened with whale oil, which the town's whaling fleet supplied, Dundee built mechanised mills, and at the industry's height it had 62 jute mills employing some 50,000 people, many of them Irish immigrants. Keiller's pioneered commercial marmalade from 1795, and DC Thomson began publishing in 1905: hence "jute, jam and journalism". Shipyards built some 200 ships a year at their peak, including Scott's Discovery. The first Tay Rail Bridge, opened in 1878, collapsed in a storm only 18 months later as a passenger train crossed, killing 75 people.

Dundee became the first Scottish place formally made a city, in 1889. Jute declined in the 20th century, unable to compete with Calcutta; whaling ended in 1912 and shipbuilding in 1981. Manufacturers such as NCR, which chose Dundee in 1945, then the universities, medical research and, from the 1980s, technology industries such as computer games took jute's place, and a £1 billion waterfront plan begun in 2001 produced the V&A Dundee in 2018.

In 2014 Dundee became the UK's first UNESCO City of Design, recognised for its contributions to medical research, comics and video games. DC Thomson still publishes The Beano and The Dandy here, and the city's gaming industry goes back to DMA Design, founded by an Abertay University student, which created Lemmings and the Grand Theft Auto series and became Rockstar North.

The arts scene is built around the V&A, the McManus, Dundee Contemporary Arts with its galleries and cinema, and the Rep theatre. Dundee has produced bands from the Average White Band and the Associates to the View, and big outdoor events fill Camperdown Park — BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend came in 2006 and 2023, and the local DJ Hannah Laing has run the Doof in the Park electronic festival there since 2025.

Football divides the city: Dundee FC, founded in 1893, and Dundee United, founded in 1909 as Dundee Hibernian, play at grounds just 100 metres apart. Dundee United reached the UEFA Cup final in 1987. In 2014 Dundee was one of four council areas to vote Yes in the Scottish independence referendum, with 57.3 per cent.

About 150,000 people live in Dundee City, according to a 2020 estimate — down from a peak of about 182,000 at the 1971 census. With two universities and around 20,000 students, roughly one resident in seven is a student, a higher share than in almost any other town in Europe.

The economy has moved from mills to research and technology: the universities, Ninewells Hospital and the School of Medicine, life sciences, software and games studios are major employers, and the city has one of the UK's largest fleets of electric vehicles. Much postwar housing, including high-rise blocks at Lochee, Kirkton and Whitfield, has been demolished since the 1990s, while old mills in the centre have been converted.

Life is lived across a hilly city split by the Law and Balgay Hill: the student West End, the old working-class streets of the Hilltown and Lochee, newer estates to the north and the quieter seaside of Broughty Ferry. The waterfront, long cut off from the centre by roads, is being reconnected, and an Eden Project attraction is planned for the 2030s.

Dundee gave its name to two of Scotland's best-known sweet things. Commercial marmalade production was pioneered here by James Keiller and Sons, founded in 1795, and the Dundee cake is a traditional Scottish fruit cake, rich with sultanas and decorated with almonds. Both are sold in the city's bakeries and delicatessens.

The surrounding countryside supplies much of the rest. The Carse of Gowrie between Dundee and Perth and the fields around Blairgowrie are well known for growing raspberries and strawberries, and the fishing towns of Angus to the north-east produce the Arbroath smokie, a haddock smoked over a hardwood fire. The Forfar bridie, a meat turnover of minced steak, sometimes with onion, comes from the market town just to the north.

Most eating out happens in the West End, where Perth Road and the Hawkhill hold most of the bars, Indian and Italian restaurants and places with a student clientele. The Nethergate has another strip of bars, and Broughty Ferry has pubs and cafés by the shore. A farmers' market fills City Square on the third Saturday of the month from February to December.