Jute, Jam and Journalism – Two Museums and Three Comic Heroes
A day on foot, from Dundee station and back.
The route
Dundee was built on three Js, jute, jam and journalism, and a day on foot from the station walks the streets where all three were made.
It starts up Castle Street, a step from the Seagate, where Janet Keiller's shop sold the marmalade that made the city's name. Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx stand in bronze along the High Street. Oor Wullie sits on a wall outside the McManus, the city's own art gallery and museum, free to walk into, where one gallery follows Dundee from the 1850s to now. Across the square rises the Courier Building, DC Thomson's home for more than a century. Then it's past the old trades' stones of the Howff and out west to Verdant Works, a mill of 1833 where the jute machines are still kept running. It's about 2 miles, with one gentle climb up Castle Street at the start.
The day
Dundee
A day on foot through the city that jute, jam and journalism built, from the top of Castle Street, a step from Janet Keiller's Seagate, to a jute mill west of the centre. The morning meets Dundee's comic heroes in bronze and the McManus, with lunch in its café. The afternoon goes out past the Howff to Verdant Works, and back to the station by Bash Street.
The Desperate Dan & Minnie the Minx Statues
An attraction
It's a 9-minute walk from the station up Castle Street. At the top, the Seagate runs east, where the story goes that Janet Keiller boiled a cargo of bitter oranges into marmalade in her shop. Along the High Street, a clock carries lines of the Jute Mill Song by Mary Brooksbank, who was working in the mills by the age of twelve. The Dandy's Desperate Dan and his dog, Dawg, stride out in bronze, the Beano's Minnie the Minx aiming her catapult at him. Across City Square stands the Caird Hall, a jute baron's gift.
4 min on foot
The McManus Art Gallery and Museum
An attraction
It's a 4-minute walk up Reform Street to Albert Square and the McManus, the city's art gallery and museum, in the Gothic hall begun in 1865 as a memorial to Prince Albert. It's free. Keiller's marmalade works stood just south of the square until 1978, and the firm went on making marmalade and sweets at its Mains Loan factory until 1992. Head first for Making of Modern Dundee, which follows the city from the 1850s to now. The café, run with Loom Deli, does thick-cut sandwiches for lunch.
Oor Wullie Statue
An attraction
Round on the west side of the McManus, a minute away, Oor Wullie sits in bronze on the wall, aiming his pea shooter at the statue of Robert Burns. He has been in the Sunday Post since 1936, first drawn by Dudley D Watkins, and the sculptor Malcolm Robertson's statue was unveiled in March 2016 for his eightieth year. Look on the wall behind him for his satchel, with Jeemy the mouse inside, his catapult and a bag of peas.
1 min on foot
The Courier Building
It's a 1-minute walk across the end of the square to Meadowside and the Courier Building, the red sandstone offices of DC Thomson, the Dundee firm behind the Courier, the Sunday Post and the Beano, and for 75 years the Dandy. It went up from 1902, standing on Scotland's first reinforced concrete piles because the ground here was boggy, and the ten-storey tower along Meadowside was added in 1960. The firm still works here, so this is one to admire from the pavement.
The Howff
An attraction
Across Meadowside, a minute away, is the gate of the Howff, the town's burial ground from 1564. The Nine Trades of Dundee once held their meetings here (howff means meeting place), and their emblems are carved on many of the old stones, from the weavers' to the hammermen's. Dundee's weavers worked linen long before jute came to the mills. It's a quiet ten minutes among the trees before the walk out west.
11 min on foot
Verdant Works
An attraction
It's an 11-minute walk west by Ward Road and West Marketgait to Verdant Works, a mill begun in 1833 for flax and later given over to jute, when some 50,000 Dundee families lived by it and women outnumbered men three to one. Volunteers keep the old machines running, among them a former mill worker, so ask at the desk when they'll next start up. Give it two hours. The station is a 17-minute walk back, by the little lane named Bash Street for the Beano's Bash Street Kids.
If it rains
The McManus (free) and Verdant Works are both under a roof, and between them they fill most of the day. In the wet, give them longer and keep the comic statues and the Courier Building to a minute each on the way past; the Howff can be a look through its gate on Meadowside. Lunch in the McManus café can be a long one.
Photograph by Big Brit Inc via Google