27/09/24
We stayed in the Larick Campsite for a second night so that we could visit Dundee. The city itself didn’t seem to be a very motorhome friendly city. There were other campsites and parking spots we could have used but none of them seemed any better than staying where we were and getting the bus, so stay we did.
We were up bright and early-ish (neither of us are particularly early risers) in the morning to walk around the corner and pick up the bus into Dundee. Two day rider tickets were £8.40, cheaper than two singles had been down on the south coast of Fife. The bus took us swiftly past the park and ride and dropped us outside Dundee station.
When we thought about visiting Dundee the first things that came to mind were Dundee Cake, and Marmalade. Neither of these things, sadly, featured in our day out.
But did you know also that the ZX Spectrum was first produced in Dundee in the Timex factory? Or that the company responsible for video games Lemmings (definitely our era, what a great game) and Grand Theft Auto started here? Nor did we until we visited the city.
V&A Dundee
We stayed close to the harbourside for the first half of the day. First of all we wanted to see the impressive architecture of the V&A museum in Dundee. The outside of the building is huge and cliff like, an almost geological behemoth clad with the horizontal concrete blocks like rock strata. The overhang juts out over the waters of the Tay like the prow of a ship.
The outside of the V&A Dundee
Inside the building is similarly impressive with a vast open space lined with polished planks of wood reflecting light in multiple directions. Whereas the outside looks windowless, the atrium is bright and light. We enjoyed the exhibition in the atrium about the construction of the building, with it’s samples of the materials used.
Inside the atrium of the V&A Dundee
Upstairs we wandered through the Scottish design galleries which were spacious and varied. The Charles Rennie Mackintosh room was a beautiful exhibit with the lattice work panels and matching lamps creating a warm atmosphere you could imagine being perfect for the tea room it was originally designed for. We heard one visitor remonstrating with the attendant that it was ‘out of context’ and museums shouldn’t take things from their original buildings. The attendant explained that the wood panelling had been rescued when the owner of the original building was going to have it scrapped, which the visitor would have known if they had spent two minutes reading the information board.
Look at that amazing lattice work. Beautiful.
The Tay Whale
Following our wanderings round the museum Paul took me for doughnuts. They had been highly recommended from the food stand outside the V&A and we can confirm that they set a high standard for future fried sweet treats. Dark and crispy on the outside and light and fluffy inside. No clagginess or uncooked dough. We had them with plain sugar but there was also the option for interesting flavoured sugars. Just thinking about them is making my mouth water.
Best doughnuts?
Next to the V&A is a metal sculpture of a whale suspended over the pavement (which also makes me think of Hitch Hikers Guide, I don’t remember seeing any petunias though). This was one of my favourite parts of the day. As you wander through the waves formed from metal tubes you are surrounded by the sounds of whales. It was pretty magical.
Whaling played an important part in Dundee’s industrial history, a sad fact which hasn’t been forgotten here. The sculpture was also inspired by the ‘Tay Whale’, a humpback whale that swam up the Tay and escaped an attempt to be harpooned only to be found dead a week later. Its skeleton can still be found in one of Dundee’s museums.
RSS Discovery
Our third visit in Dundee’s maritime area was to the RSS Discovery. This is the ship that took Scott and Shackleton to the Antarctic and was specifically designed for their expedition and built in Dundee’s shipyards. At the time it was built many ships were steam powered and built of iron, but Discovery needed to be built of a more forgiving substance to allow it to retain it’s structural integrity with the pressure of Antarctic ice. So it was built of wood, and Dundee was chosen as the build location due to the expertise in building wooden hulled ships. It wasn’t a perfect ship, but on it’s first voyage it survived two years entrapped in the Antarctic ice when the expedition had only planned one year of exploration. It’s construction had done what was asked of it.
RRS Discovery in dry dock
We arrived at the ticket office only to find that the boat was due to shut in half an hour as someone was getting married on board. Disappointed, we almost decided to go to the HMS Unicorn instead (another, older, ship open to visitors) but were offered a discount so decided to go for it.
We managed to wander around the Discovery and see all of the main areas before we were thrown off for the wedding preparations. Down below I mentioned to Paul that I couldn’t see any portholes, not even in the captains office. The Discovery’s hull was constructed of three layers of wood and couldn’t have portholes, because it may have compromised the strength of the ship. It must have been quite gloomy below decks without the aid of electric lighting.
Ward Room in RSS Discovery. The officers knew how to explore in style.
There is a lot of preservation work ongoing to try to ensure that the Discovery can remain open to visitors for years to come. We saw the restoration team lifting the ship’s wheel off to their workshop while we were there. It means some parts of the ship aren’t open to visitors, but we had plenty to see in our short visit.
Luckily there is more than just the ship to see at the Discovery centre. A museum provides information about the original voyage, Antarctic exploration, Dundee shipbuilding and the history of the ship after it’s first voyage. After the Antarctic exploration it was bought by the Hudson Bay company to support the fur trade, requisitioned for use in the 1st World War and in 1923 was put into use again as a research ship. This time to investigate whale populations because of the increasing concerns that whale stocks were being depleted. This was instrumental in providing the evidence that whaling should be reduced.
After further service in WWII and as a training ship, the RSS discovery was finally returned to Dundee in 1986 and the tourist attraction we see today started to be developed. As you can probably tell, we found it fascinating.
We left the museum to the sound of a piper welcoming the wedding party on-board.
Dundee City
For the rest of the day we wandered around the city of Dundee. People watching, alley exploring and generally getting a feeling for this city that is full of students we definitely have plans to revisit the city as there are more things to see here.
We’ll leave you with Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx, another product of Dundee.
