Magdalen Green – Sunset over the Tay and Supper at Piccolo
A few hours, from Dundee station and back.
The route
Magdalen Green is Dundee's oldest public park, a wide lawn above the river with a Victorian bandstand and the Tay Rail Bridge running two miles across the water to Fife.
Watch the light go down over the Tay, climb the cobbles of Strawberry Bank to the Perth Road, and settle in for supper at Piccolo, a small, much-loved Italian restaurant. It's a lovely easy evening, all on foot from the station.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book supper at Piccolo, Perth Road
Book a table at Piccolo on 01382 201419 or its website for about half an hour after sunset, Wednesday to Sunday: it seats only 30, serves dinner from 5.30pm with last orders at 9pm, and is shut on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The day
Dundee
An easy evening stroll to the river's edge for the sunset, then up a quiet old lane to an Italian supper on the Perth Road.
About three and a half hours
Magdalen Green
It's a 24-minute walk west from the station to Magdalen Green, a wide, level lawn above the river with a cast-iron bandstand from 1890. In front of you the Tay Rail Bridge runs two miles across the water to Fife, with the stumps of the first bridge beside it, the one that fell in the great storm of December 1879. Come for the half hour before sunset and watch the light go down over the river. This works best in spring and autumn, from mid-February to the end of March and from mid-September until the clocks go back in late October. In those weeks the sun sets in good time for supper; in summer it sets too late, and in midwinter too early. The Green is open at all hours, but there are no toilets here.
4 min on foot
Strawberry Bank
An attraction
From the Green, it's a 4-minute walk to the foot of Strawberry Bank, a narrow cobbled lane that climbs steeply between high stone walls and hidden gardens to the Perth Road. It has lamp posts all the way up and handrails on the walls, and the setts are slippery in the wet. At the top, turn east along the Perth Road.
18 min on foot
Piccolo
Supper
It's about 10 minutes along the Perth Road from the foot of the lane to supper at Piccolo at number 210, a small Italian restaurant with only 30 seats, run since 2007 by its Dundee-born chef. It serves dinner from Wednesday to Sunday, from 5.30pm with last orders at 9pm, so book a table. Ring ahead about access if you need it. Afterwards it's an 18-minute walk back along the Perth Road and the Nethergate to the station.
If it rains
In rain or low cloud there's no sunset to wait for: walk straight up the Perth Road to Piccolo, 18 minutes from the station, and look down Strawberry Bank to the river on the way.
Photograph by Fergus Black via Google