Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea.
Under the name of Dundee City, it forms one of the 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Angus, the city developed into a burgh in the late 12th century and established itself as an important east coast trading port. Rapid expansion was brought on by the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the 19th century when Dundee was the centre of the global jute industry. This, along with its other major industries, gave Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
With the decline of traditional industry, the city has adopted a plan to regenerate and reinvent itself as a cultural centre. In pursuit of this, a £1 billion master plan to regenerate and to reconnect the Waterfront to the city centre started in 2001 and is expected to be completed within a 30-year period. The V&A Dundee – the first branch of the V&A to operate outside of London – is the main centrepiece of the waterfront project. Today, Dundee is promoted as "One City, Many Discoveries" in honour of Dundee's history of scientific activities and of the RRS Discovery, Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic exploration vessel, which was built in Dundee and is now berthed at Discovery Point.
Dundee is an international research and development hub in technology, medicine and life sciences, with technological industries having arrived since the 1980s."Dundee has an international research reputation in the field of biomedical lifesciences and attracts over £50 million per annum in research funding, 90% of which is directed to the biomedical area. All life science and clinical research departments are 5/5*, the highest rating available." - www.bio-dundee.com Dundee was named as a "City of the Future" by Cognizant in 2021, the only UK city to be featured. Dundee is also a leading city in AI, cybersecurity, fintech and electric vehicles where the city has one of the largest fleets of electric vehicles in the country. The city was named as the electric vehicle capital of Europe in 2018, and it has continuously been branded as the electric vehicle capital of Scotland and the United Kingdom.
In 2014, Dundee was recognised by the United Nations as the UK's first UNESCO City of Design for its diverse contributions to fields including medical research, comics and video games. Since 2015, Dundee's international profile has risen. GQ magazine named Dundee the "Coolest Little City in Britain" in 2015 and The Wall Street Journal ranked Dundee at number 5 on its "Worldwide Hot Destinations" list for 2018.
Etymology The name "Dundee" is made up of two parts: the common Celtic place-name element , meaning 'fort'; and a second part that may be the genitive of a personal name Daig, which in turn derives from an old Celtic element meaning 'fire'.; Dundee is also recorded as Dun-Tay, e.g. The Latin soubriquet Dei donum ('Gift of God') is a learned pun with no relevance for the etymology. The usual medieval Latin form was .
History
Early history While earlier evidence for human occupation is abundant,The earliest evidence for human occupation of the area dates from the Mesolithic: ; Dundee's success and growth as a seaport town arguably came as a result of William the Lion's charter, granting Dundee to his younger brother, David (later Earl of Huntingdon), in the late 12th century. The situation of the town and its promotion by Earl David as a trading centre led to a period of prosperity and growth.; ; The earldom was passed down to David's descendants, amongst whom was John Balliol. The town became a Royal Burgh on John's coronation as king in 1292. The town and its castle were occupied by English forces for several years during the First War of Independence and recaptured by Robert the Bruce in early 1312. The original burghal charters were lost during the occupation and subsequently renewed by Bruce in 1327.
The burgh suffered considerably during the conflict known as the Rough Wooing of 1543 to 1550, and was occupied by the English forces of Andrew Dudley from 1547. In 1548, unable to defend the town against an advancing Scottish force, Dudley ordered that the town be burnt to the ground.; In 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Dundee was again besieged, this time by the Royalist Marquess of Montrose.; ; ; The town was finally destroyed by Parliamentarian forces led by George Monck in 1651.; ; The town played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Jacobite cause when John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee raised the Stuart standard on the Dundee Law in 1689.; The town was held by the Jacobites in the 1715–16 rising, and on 6 January 1716 the Jacobite claimant to the throne, James VIII and III (the Old Pretender), made a public entry into the town. Many in Scotland, including many in Dundee, regarded him as the rightful king.J. Baynes, The Jacobite Rising of 1715 (1970), p. 166
A notable resident of Dundee was Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, Baron of Lundie (1 July 1731 to 4 August 1804). He was born in Dundee on 1 July 1731, the son of Alexander Duncan of Lundie, Provost of Dundee. Adam was educated in Dundee and later joined the Royal Navy on board the sloop Trial. He rose to be admiral and in October 1797 defeated the Dutch fleet off Camperdown (north of Haarlem). This was seen as one of the most significant actions in naval history.Laughton, John Knox (1888). "Duncan, Adam". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 159–161
18th and 19th centuries The economy of medieval Dundee centred on the export of raw wool, with the production of finished textiles being a reaction to recession in the 15th century. Two government Acts in the mid 18th century had a profound effect on Dundee's industrial success: the textile industry was revolutionised by the introduction of large four-storey mills, stimulated in part by the 1742 Bounty Act which provided a government-funded subsidy on Osnaburg linen produced for export.; ; ; Expansion of the whaling industry was triggered by the second Bounty Act, introduced in 1750 to increase Britain's maritime and naval skill base. Dundee, and Scotland more generally, saw rapid population increase at end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, with the city's population increasing from 12,400 in 1751 to 30,500 in 1821.
The phasing out of the linen export bounty between 1825 and 1832 stimulated demand for cheaper textiles, particularly for cheaper, tough fabrics. The discovery that the dry fibres of jute could be lubricated with whale oil (of which Dundee had a surfeit, following the opening of its gasworks) to allow it to be processed in mechanised mills resulted in the Dundee mills rapidly converting from linen to jute, which sold at a quarter of the price of flax.; ; Interruption of Prussian flax imports during the Crimean War and of cotton during the American Civil War resulted in a period of inflated prosperity for Dundee and the jute industry dominated Dundee throughout the latter half of the 19th century.; ; Unprecedented immigration, notably of Irish workers, led to accelerated urban expansion, and at the height of the industry's success, Dundee supported 62 jute mills, employing some 50,000 workers; and Whatley and Tomlinson document "Dundee’s emergence as a Global City, 1830s-1870s".
Cox Brothers, who owned the massive Camperdown Works in Lochee, for a period in the later nineteenth century it was the largest jute works in the world and employed more than 5000 workers. The works formed part of Dundee's emergence as the principal centre of mechanised jute manufacture within the British Empire, processing raw fibre imported largely from Bengal and exporting finished goods to international markets. Its most prominent surviving feature is Cox's Stack, a monumental chimney designed by George Addison Cox with architectural detailing by the Dundee architect James MacLaren, completed in 1866, and now a Category A listed building. Its height, elegant campanile form, and decorative brickwork suggest that Cox's Stack was intended as a prominent civic landmark for Dundee as well as a functional industrial chimney. To commemorate this, there is a small bronze statue of Cox's Stack on a plinth in Dundee High Street that was unveiled by Prince Charles in 1995 (Now King Charles III).Dundee Public Art – 3 small bronze statues of Cox's Stack, Wishart Arch and the Royal Arch on plinths, unveiled by Prince Charles in June 1995 - in High St, Dundee DD1 1SA, UK.
The rise of the textile industries brought with it an expansion of supporting industries, notably of the whaling, maritime and shipbuilding industries, and extensive development of the waterfront area started in 1815 to cope with increased demand for port capacity.; At its height, 200 ships per year were built there, including Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic research vessel, the . This ship is now on display at Discovery Point in the city. A significant whaling industry was also based in Dundee, largely existing to supply the jute mills with whale oil. Whaling ceased in 1912 and shipbuilding ceased in 1981.
While the city's economy was dominated by the jute industry, it also became known for smaller industries. Most notable among these were James Keiller's and Sons, established in 1795, which pioneered commercial marmalade production, and the publishing firm DC Thomson, which was founded in the city in 1905. Dundee was said to be built on the 'three Js': Jute, Jam and Journalism.
The population at the time of the 1841 census was 60,551 inhabitants.
The town was also the location of one of the worst rail disasters in British history, the Tay Bridge disaster. The first Tay Rail Bridge was opened in 1878. It collapsed only 18 months later during a storm, as a passenger train passed over it, resulting in the loss of 75 lives. The most destructive fire in the city's history came in 1906, reportedly sending "rivers of burning whisky" through the street. By the later nineteenth century Dundee occupied a distinctive position within the wider Industrial Revolution in Scotland.
20th and 21st centuries Although far from being a major employer, in the years before the First World War, fishing from Dundee was relatively important. In 1910 ten steam trawlers operated out of Dundee. Landings by weight were almost the same as in Anstruther, and far greater than in Arbroath. They were also of much greater value. It was only in that year that the Fishery Board chose to include trawlers in their statistics - hence the abrupt changes.
The jute industry fell into decline in the early 20th century, partly due to reduced demand for jute products and partly due to an inability to compete with the emerging industry in Calcutta.; ; This gave rise to unemployment levels far in excess of the national average, peaking in the inter-war period,; but major recovery was seen in the post-war period, thanks to the arrival first of American light engineering companies like Timex and NCR, and subsequent expansion into microelectronics.; ;
Dundee was the first city in Scotland to gain official city status, after Queen Victoria signed a patent announcing the transition of Dundee from a royal burgh into a city. Dundee would officially gain city status on 26 January 1889. The patent still exists and is kept in storage in the city archives.