A Rainy Day at the McManus: Art, Dundee's Story and Lunch
A few hours.
The route
The McManus is Dundee's own art gallery and museum, free to walk into and just the place to spend a few hours when it rains.
Spend half a day there, with the city's story and its paintings under one Gothic roof and lunch just across the square.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
A table at the Bach is worth booking through its own page for a weekend lunch, though it takes walk-ins; the Bach is shut all day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so on those days have lunch at the McManus's own café, which serves until 4pm.
The day
Dundee
A few hours under one roof in Dundee: a coffee at Mana on Whitehall Crescent, then two or three hours in the McManus on Albert Square. Cross the square for lunch at the Bach, a Kiwi-run café with tacos, bao and burgers. On the days the Bach is shut, the McManus has its own café.
About four hours
The McManus Art Gallery and Museum
An attraction
The McManus was built in memory of Prince Albert, and it's free to go in. Oor Wullie, the Sunday Post's cartoon boy, has a statue outside, and the doors are level, on Commercial Street or Panmure Street. It opens at 10am, and at 12.30pm on Sundays. Its galleries follow Dundee from its first settlers to today, with paintings hung high upstairs. If it's dry, the Howff, an old graveyard whose name is Scots for a meeting place, is a 3-minute walk away.
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The Bach
Lunch
Lunch is a minute's walk across Albert Square at the Bach, a Kiwi-run café serving tacos, bao, burgers and sandos from noon. It's open Thursday to Monday, 9am to 9pm, and you can walk in or book a table on its own page. On a Sunday, when the McManus opens at 12.30pm, come here first. Dogs are welcome before 6pm. There are steps up to the door and eight down to the toilets. For a step-free lunch, or on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when the Bach is shut, use the McManus café, open to 4pm.
If it rains
All of it is under a roof but the minute across Albert Square to lunch at the Bach. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays the Bach is shut and lunch is in the McManus's own café, under the same roof. On a wet day leave the Howff out.