Dundee: Guide

Dundee is in North East Scotland|North East Scotland and is Scotland's 4th city. The city is just over 800 years old. It is located, on the banks of the River Tay, which flows out into the North Sea, on the East Coast.

Understand

Dundee, City of Discovery

Dundee Tourist Information & Orientation Centre is located at 21 Castle Street, Dundee, DD1 3AA

Relative to other Scottish cities, Dundee's location is:

1hr North of Edinburgh
1.5Hr North East of Glasgow
1.5Hr South of Aberdeen

Historically, it is famous for the three J's. Jute, Jam and Journalism.

Jute - The boats, laden with jute from the Indian Sub-Continent used to arrive at Dundee, where the jute would be unladen and processed in the many jute mills around the City. Due to these jute factories, there was a lot of immigrant labour during this time. The last textile factory closed down a few of years ago, circa 2001. A lot of the old jute factory buildings have now been converted into apartments and offices.

Jam - Dundee is famous for its jam. The farms around Dundee grew (some still do) berries. These were used to make the jam. Also the Keillor Sweet Factory was famous for its sweets, although this is now shut down.

Journalism - Dundee is home to the famous Dandy and the Beano comics. D C Thomson are the publishers of these and other print titles.

The people of Dundee, a.k.a. Dundonians, are generally a friendly bunch. The majority of people in Dundee are either retired or students. The student population is very high, about 1 in 7.

Dundee is a city with a village feel. Most locals are related to one another in some way and this contributes to a homely atmosphere wherever one goes in the city. Some are wary of outsiders (people from Scotland's West Coast region especially)-unfortunately there have a few incidences of attacks on foreign students in Dundee-so exercise caution and be safe.

Get in

By plane

Dundee has its , with flights direct to London#London_City_Airport_.28LCY.29|London City Airport. operates the service, which are roughly £60 to £150 for one-way and £100 to £250 for a return.

The nearest major international airports to Dundee are at Edinburgh#By_air|Edinburgh - 60 mi (96km), or Aberdeen#By_plane|Aberdeen - 71 mi (114km). For Edinburgh airport, a combined train and linking at Inverkeithing Railway costs £15 for a single and £22.60 for a period return.

By train

There is a mainline train station, located in the City Centre, called Dundee Station. can be checked on-line. There are frequent services, almost every hour to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Average Cost for single ticket is approx £18, and return is £24. Check before you travel.

By bus

Dundee Seagate Bus Station, also located in the city centre serves coaches, and . There are frequent services, almost every hour to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Be wary, if you take a non-direct Coach / Bus, your journey time may double to up to 2hrs !! Average cost for a single ticket is approx £8. Check before you travel.

Get around

To get around Dundee, there are ample provisions for car transport. Taxis are available at taxi ranks near principal sites, such as Cathedral, Train Station, etc. The local bus service, , has extensive intra-city connections - with the routes as of 2006 as follows:

}

All the local buses converge into the city centre and are relatively cheap. You can buy a 10 journey pass or an all day travel pass. Rural services are operated by .

See

- re-opens Spring 2008

Do

Go Hill Walking in the Highlands, e.g.
For more entertainment suggestions (and details of when things are happening) check out

Learn

Dundee has high student population, because it has two universities and one college located in the city centre !!!

Collectively, the Academia in Dundee are strong in the following fields:

Software Engineering
Computer Games Development
Medicine
Dentistry
MBA
Civil Engineering
waste water Technology

It is very well worthwhile just walking around the campuses, as some of the architecture of the buildings is worth seeing. e.g. the new library in Bell St.

Work

Buy

There are two indoor shopping centres in the city centre, namely, The Wellgate and The Overgate. There is also plenty of outdoor shopping in the surrounding streets.

Eat

In recent years a cafe culture has flourished in Dundee City Centre. There are plenty of places to eat both from fast food take away, cafes and restaurants. You can't miss them. Recommended ones:

Cafe Buongiorno, off the reform street.
The Balaka on Perth road
Jahangir on the Hawkhill
Phoenix Bar on the Nethergate serves up good pub grub at reasonable prices.
on Perth Road
at City Quay
City Harbour Chinese Buffet

Drink

There is no shortage of pubs. If you want to do a pub crawl then head to the Hawkhill, where there are plenty of pubs line up in the street! There are a mixture of independent, theme and Irish pubs.

The Nethergate is also a good place to go for plenty of bars and they are popular with students. The city centre has less places that are worth going, although the Seagate has some nice bars. The student union has many good nights and is great for a cheap night out.

There is a gay club called Out opposite the main bus station.

Churches

The following is a list of established Christian churches in Dundee. Alongside the established churches in Dundee, works with many of the city's churches organising many different events such as "Resurrection Day", with specially invited guests/bands.

St Andrew's Cathedral

Nightlife

All the night clubs cluster around the city centre. Ones that come to mind are:
- closed

The Cotton Club (Formerly The Colloseum)

Sleep

During the summer, the majority of student accommodations are empty, it may be worthwhile contacting the local Universities to see if they have anything to offer

Contact

Cellular network coverage is provided by the normal UK carriers.
There were Internet cafes but they have shut down, leaving only one, in The Overgate Centre, inside Debenhams department store.

Stay safe

The local police is and the head office is in the town centre at the end of West Bell St beside Dundee's Sherrif Court. Although in the UK, '999' is the number to call the emergency services, you may also want to take note of the direct phone number to the Tayside Police HQ : +44138223200

Mostly, the city centre and the West End (student area) are as safe as any other city. The area round the back of the Wellgate centre (Hilltown) has a bad reputation, and the general thinking is that the closer to the river you are the nicer the area is. The walk along the river past Tesco is deserted and not recommended, and the Law hill can be dodgy at night.

Dundee has a Dual Carriageway going through it which almost splits the city in half.

Cope

Dundonians have their own slang, a quick crash course strongle influenced by Lowland Scots (some of these are not necessarily restricted in use by Dundonians, rather Scots folks affen hae a wye o' spikin thit cin affa confuse ony English spikin fowk):

Bairn = child
Broo = Jobcentre / unemployed (On the broo/My broo just came through)
Broon = Brown
Bridie = A Meat filled Pastry, in the shape of a semi-circle
Circle = Roundabout
Dinnae = Don't
Fleg = Fright/Scare
Ingin= Onion
Irn Bru = A soft drink, extremely popular in Scotland
Ken = Know
Tatties = potatoes
Wee = small
Minging = bad smelling or bad tasting

If you are self-catering, then you can get your supplies from . There is a branch in the city centre, one next to the Railway Station by the river-side, one at the Stack Park, Lochee, one in South Road near Sterling Mills and another on the Kingsway (the main road running through Dundee). The last of these is a large Tesco Extra superstore.

Get out

If you want to visit the Glens and the Highlands then the best way to do it is by car. Enterprise Car hire is located next the Bus / Coach station. (131 Seagate, Dundee, DD1 2HW)

St Andrews is an ancient university town by the sea, the home of the oldest university in Scotland, the home of the Royal and Ancient (the ruling body of Golf), and the former ecclesiastical capital of Scotland. It is a short journey from Dundee by bus or car.

This "Travel Guide" section is drawn from the Wikitravel article "Dundee". We hope you will edit and improve it. It is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license.