Dundee

We rounded off the holiday with quick visit to Maureen’s hometown of Dundee. This was mainly to visit the new V&A design museum that we just missed last time, and to visit Maureen’s father’s last remaining sibling, who is in his nineties, and his wife, both of whom are looking well. The V&A is a striking building on Dundee’s redeveloped waterfront. It looks like a huge boat composed of horizontal lines. According to the woman at the information desk the designer was inspired by pancake-style cliffs in the area. However, when Maureen passed on a comment from a previous host's daughter, ‘mum, they’ve built a building out of window sills,’ the woman said that she won’t be able to see anything else now.

The complex was impressive, if a little underdone on content at this stage. However this was made up for by a superb exhibition on tartan, including the frightful revelation that the whole concept of clan tartans was spawned by a couple of devious Englishmen. (They have long memories up this way).

Nearby is an impressive sculpture of the ‘Tay Whale.’ The humpback caused a stir when it swam into the Firth of Tay in 1883. Maureen took some nice pics of it as per the example here.

Downtown Dundee has a down-at-heel look, like other areas of Britain. Countless shops and businesses including iconic long-standing ones like Debenhams, where I went on a spending spree in 2002, have closed. The Wellgate, one of two main shopping malls that book-end the CBD, has turned into a hollowed-out shell of bargain bin stores and community outreach tenancies. It’s all down to a perfect storm of Covid, Brexit, and a tripling of energy costs. Dundee is an underrated city with its attractive hillside setting overlooking the silvery waters of the Tay estuary. Hopefully it will rise again before long, and capitalise on the momentum gained by its inspired waterfront redevelopment. It is also close to some pretty decent golf courses, including St Andrews and Carnoustie, which we had a look around later in the day. It is a gently undulating and treeless course that belies its perils (if the dense rough doesn’t get you, the deep-cratered bunkers will.)

I’m finishing this draft at 30,000 feet an hour so out from Singapore, nearing the end of what has been an amazing trip. Thanks to all who have been checking in on my travel diary and hope you enjoyed it.

Wayne