Dundee was an industrial city famously built on three Js — jute, jam (actually marmalade) and journalism. But it’s three Vs that have transformed it into a tourist destination in the past few years — video-gaming wealth, a vibrant waterfront and its very own branch of the V&A.
You need only step out of Dundee Station to be dazzled by that waterfront, a less-than-30-second stroll from the train platform. The award-winning V&A building (inspired by an Orkney rock formation) leans out over the silvery water like a huge ocean liner; next door sits the real thing, the iconic RSS Discovery, which pioneered research expeditions to the Antarctic.
These two attractions alone are worth the trip, along with HMS Unicorn, Scotland’s oldest ship – and one of the six oldest vessels in the world, moored a few minutes’ walk away on City Quay — but they will soon be joined by a branch of the Eden Project, expected in 2026.
Add in a string of new hospitality offerings, and in future this bonny urban bank of the River Tay may rival nearby Edinburgh.
The big draw this summer is the Kimonos exhibition at the V&A, which brings us back to J for Japanese. The current venue for this blockbuster show (which opened in London) is strangely appropriate.
The building is not only so handsome that it’s the subject of daily tours, it was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, while the kimono featured in the exhibition poster is a tartan one.
With a permanent collection of Scottish design, including the recreation of a Charles Rennie Mackintosh tea-room, an inspired shop – fashionistas have been snapping up pre-loved kimonos made in Japan at bargain prices, compared to most art museum fashion – and a beautiful cafe overlooking the river, it’s no surprise to learn the V&A has welcomed two million visitors since opening five years ago and has remained the city’s leading attraction.
It has also drawn a colony of creatives to the city; not just designers and graphic artists following in the footsteps of those cartoonists who helped make Dundee famous (the J for journalism includes iconic comics such as The Beano, Dandy and other stars of the DC Thomson stable), but also video- game developers who have created a new foundation for urban prosperity.
Dundee is the birthplace of not only Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan but Grand Theft Auto and other huge gaming franchises, and is rapidly becoming a world centre for the growing field of e-sports.
The spirit of playfulness and creativity infusing the city extends to new waterfront gardens, which include soundscapes to delight the ears as well as plenty to please the eyes, with colourful Plexiglass panels through which to view the plants, not to mention dancing fountains leading to an urban beach.
Waterfront Gardens (Photo: Visit Scotland/Kenny Lam)
A stone’s throw away is another of the riverfront’s landmarks, the Malmaison hotel. Surely one of the best located in the city, at the end of lively Union Street, it’s as close to the station on the left as to the V&A and Discovery to its right — as long as you like the hotel group’s trademark deep purple, brooding Gothic and semi-industrial vibe.
This delightful green space to the left of the V&A is easily missed, given visitors enter and exit on the right, bang opposite Discovery.
The ship itself is the star of Dundee’s second most popular attraction, where visitors can explore not only the chart room but also the warren of subterranean cabins where dozens set sail under Scott, Shackleton and other polar heroes.
But there is also an audio-visual experience in the adjacent Discovery Dome, including a 360-degree panorama of Dundee as it was back in 1901.
This was the year the ship launched in a very different looking, forbidding industrial city, built on the jute so essential for shipping, required for everything from rope to sacks.
Jewish merchants were also drawn to this prosperous place during the 19th century, building a synagogue in 1878, which closed when the small Tayside community relocated to St Andrews.
Dundee skyline (Photo: Visit Scotland/Kenny Lam)
A hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus from Discovery point takes you past more of Dundee’s landmarks including a stop near the Verdant Works Museum. This etsablishment evocatively tells the story of the brutal jute industry, which endowed the city with its parks and magnificent Victorian buildings, such as the McManus Museum, at the expense of the poor.
These were mostly women and children, who were paid much less than men to toil in mills such as the Verdant when the linen looms which they honed their skills on were turned over to jute production.
While the poor were coughing their way to premature death up in Hilltown, the jute barons were living it large in the seaside suburb of Broughty Ferry.
This is where much of Dundee’s middle class lives today, in handsome old homes within an eight-minute train commute of the city, enjoying lively café life and the city’s most eclectic shops.
After visiting the 15th-century castle perched on the front (interior accessible only via a steep spiral staircase), take a boat ride on one of the RIBs operated by Saltdog Marine, whisking wildlife-lovers out to sea in search of seals and dolphins, and enjoy a taste of the sumptuous past in Casa Fresa’s Taymouth House, an apartment furnished with chandeliers and elegant bedrooms with velvet button-back headboards.
Broughty Castle (Photo: Visit Scotland/Kenny Lam)
From the castle, a walk along the esplanade will allow you to admire those substantial manses, once home to the jute barons, before strolling up Gray Street to the main drag, Brook Street; these two thoroughfares are home to interesting shops such as The Cheesery deli and Pretty Fly, which showcases locally made crafts and has its own jewellery workshop.
While Broughty Ferry is a hive of all-day casual dining – try Forgans for fresh fish and tasty salads – the city’s most notable chef, Adam Newth, has moved his fine-dining establishment to Dundee.
His Tayberry Restaurant is one excellent reason to explore the rapidly regenerating Perth Road end of the city, along with the repertory theatre next door and the DCA (Dundee Contemporary Arts) centre down the road.
In a city whose centre largely closes down at 5pm, the DCA is a great place to catch an art exhibition, then wander downstairs to drink with locals in the buzzy cafe-bar-restaurant or take in a film in the art-house cinema.
All just a ten-minute walk from the station, which forms the start and end point of many trips.
A love of trains is certainly required though; Manchester and Liverpool are four to five hours away, including changes, while London’s direct route takes nearly six hours.
For a more memorable way to arrive, the Caledonian Sleeper conveys the deep-pocketed overnight, with the food and buzz reminiscent of club cars of trains gone by – our return trip in a conventional two-bunk compartment proved more comfortable than the ride up in an en suite double bedroom right over the wheels.
But however you choose to arrive and depart, Dundee is giving visitors ever more reasons to make the journey.
Getting There
A Club Twin sleeping two people aboard The Caledonian Sleeper costs from £320 from London to Dundee including breakfast. Return fares from London to Dundee with LNER cost from £128.40.
Various airlines fly from London to Dundee, as well as from airports across the UK to Edinburgh with bus connections to Dundee.
Rooms at the Malmaison Dundee cost from £77.
Apartments at Taymouth House cost from £119.
For more information, go to visitdundee.com
