The Dundee Waterfront – Scott's Ship, the V&A and HMS Unicorn
A day on foot, from Dundee station and back.
The route
Dundee has rebuilt its waterfront round the River Tay, and a day on foot along it takes in Discovery, the V&A and HMS Unicorn.
The station is a 2-minute walk from RRS Discovery, the ship built here for Captain Scott's first Antarctic expedition, back in her own dock beside the museum that tells her story. Next door, the V&A juts out over the river, Scotland's design museum and free to walk round, with lunch inside. The afternoon heads east under the Tay Whale, across Slessor Gardens and past the landing of the road bridge to Victoria Dock and HMS Unicorn, a warship of 1824 with a roof over her deck. The walk back runs through City Square to the March of the Penguins on the Nethergate, a few minutes from the train. It's about 2 miles, all of it on the flat.
The day
Waterfront
A day along Dundee's river, from Scott's ship and the V&A out east to the old frigate in Victoria Dock. The morning goes to the two big museums beside the station. The afternoon follows the water past the Tay Whale and Slessor Gardens to HMS Unicorn, and the walk home runs through City Square to the penguins on the Nethergate, a few minutes from the train.
Discovery Point and RRS Discovery
An attraction
Discovery Point and RRS Discovery are a 2-minute walk from the station. She was built here in Dundee and launched in 1901 to carry Captain Scott on his first expedition to Antarctica, and she came home to the city in 1986. The museum tells her story first, then you're aboard: the decks under her three masts and down to the wardroom and Scott's own cabin. She's part way through a conservation that runs to about 2028, so you may find scaffolding and shipwrights at work. Give her two hours.
About 2 min on foot
V&A Dundee
An attraction
Along the river, 2 minutes on, is the V&A, the architect Kengo Kuma's great ribbed building, which leans out over the Tay and was drawn from the cliffs of Scotland's east coast. Walk through the arch beneath it to the river side first, then into the tall timber hall. The Scottish Design Galleries are free, and the piece to find is the Oak Room, the tearoom Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed for Miss Cranston in Glasgow, rebuilt inside. Tatha, the museum's own kitchen, is the place for lunch.
About 2 min on foot
The Tay Whale
Round the V&A, 2 minutes away on Waterfront Place, stands the Tay Whale, the artist Lee Simmons's 36-metre whale of stainless steel tubes, some 2,500 pieces of it, arching over the square. Stand beneath it and listen for the whale song. It's a nod to the city's whaling fleet, and to the humpback that swam up the Tay in 1883, whose skeleton is in the McManus museum up in the town. At night it's lit from below.
3 min on foot
Slessor Gardens
Slessor Gardens, a 3-minute walk up, is a big lawn ringed by small themed gardens on the site of the old Earl Grey Dock. It's named for Mary Slessor, the Dundee mill girl who became a missionary in Nigeria. Plaques mark where the Royal Arch stood, finished in 1853 to remember Queen Victoria's landing here in 1844 and pulled down in 1964 to make way for the road bridge. From the gardens' east end the Tay Road Bridge sets off on its 1.4-mile run over the river to Fife.
9 min on foot
HMS Unicorn
It's a 9-minute walk east, past the bridge's landing and along Whalers Lane and South Victoria Dock Road, to HMS Unicorn in Victoria Dock. Launched at Chatham in 1824, she was never rigged and never sailed: the Navy roofed her over and kept her in reserve, and in 1873 she was towed to Dundee as a drill ship. She's the oldest ship in Scotland, and you go down through her decks by steep ladderways under low beams. Last entry is at 3.30pm.
15 min on foot
The March of the Penguins
An attraction
It's a 15-minute walk back through the town, by Shore Terrace and City Square in front of the Caird Hall, past the statues of Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx. From there it runs along the High Street to the Nethergate and the March of the Penguins. Five bronze penguins by the Dundee artist Angela Hunter stand in a row on the wall outside the Steeple Church, and the city dresses them up for graduations, Christmas and royal visits. The station is a 5-minute walk away, down Couttie's Wynd.
If it rains
Three of the day's stops are under a roof: Discovery Point and the ship, the V&A, and HMS Unicorn, whose main deck is roofed over. In the wet, give each of them longer and keep the Tay Whale and Slessor Gardens to a look on the way past. With children, Dundee Science Centre on Greenmarket, an 8-minute walk west of the station, fills a wet morning or afternoon: its visits are timed, with two and a half hours on the floor and the last session at 1.30pm, so book ahead.
Photographs by Martin Mulholland, DE, Rob Walker and Dan Otter via Google