Day 82: Carnoustie, Tayside to Leuchars Station, Fife
Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021
27th March 2021: 41.67km walked today taking the total to 8296.02/8868km. 8% of 71 entries submitting 520.91km.
From Carnoustie we walk through Monifieth and Broughty Ferry, then explore Dundee and its huge industrial and cultural past, before crossing the Tay Bridge into Fife to walk the Fife Coastal Path to Leuchars Station.
As we leave Carnoustie behind, we pass Buddon Ness, a headland which sits on the extremity of Barry Links at the mouth of the Tay Estuary. Barry Sands runs around the shore of Buddon Ness and, while the area is a National Scenic Area, most of the land belongs to the Ministry of Defence today; Barry Buddon Training Camp. The Barry Buddon Shooting Centre, located within the training camp, was used in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Shooting events. There are no lookouts these days due to budget cuts, so we don’t venture down the lanes to see the 2 lighthouses at the estuary head; they were abandoned in 1943 and now also used by the military.
On entering Monifieth we walk past their Golf Club and the Monifieth Athletic Football Club. It is a town in its own right but became a suburb of Dundee officially in 1975. For centuries there were only a small number of turf huts here until the arrival of a foundry in 1800. James F Low & Co attracted orders from across the world for machinery for the flax industry. The foundry made bombs and aircraft parts during World War 2 but by 1984 it had gone. There was also a Red Cross Hospital based here during World War 1 treating wounded servicemen. We walk along the seafront passing Monifieth Sands, a long, sandy beach and we are now on the Firth of Tay. Pushing on through the Monifieth Wild Flower Meadow, along the coast at Barnhill, the path joins The Esplanade which was created in 1895. As we walk, we see the beautiful Barnhill Rock Garden, created in 1955 onwards, located where Tom Morris established a 9-hole golf course in 1896.
We are now in Broughty Ferry, known as ‘The Ferry’, whose name is derived from Gaelic, ‘Bruach Tatha’, meaning Tay bank. It’s been referred to as ’The Jewel in Dundee’s Crown’ as it is popular with visitors. Beginning life as a fishing community, by the early 1400s a ferry crossed the Firth of Tay from here to Partan Craig, or Crab Rock, now called Tayport in Fife. The area was recognised as being of strategic importance so permission to build a Broughty Ferry Castle was granted. Investment came in 1801, a new town developed in a gridiron pattern and extended in 1825. The Ferry established itself as the most desirable place to live around the Dundee area; the jute barons set up home here away from the increasingly cramped and polluted city centre. Railway Quay was constructed in 1846 to the west of the castle to transport trains across the Firth as part of the rail link from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. This ceased after the rail bridge was constructed in 1878 and operated again during the bridges’ reconstruction after a major disaster. More about that in a while too! Steam ferries brought tourists and goods from other ports and with the arrival of the tramway in 1905 the Ferry grew as a Dundee suburb; it became part of the city in 1913. The place had gone from a cluster of fisherman’s cottages to a prosperous suburb of the city, referred to as ‘the richest square mile in Europe’ in the 19th century.
We continue along The Esplanade which runs along the top of the beach backed by dunes. The Broughty Ferry Nature Reserve, set back a little from the road, gives an excellent example of a raised beach; dunes lying on top of bedrock composed of Andesitic Lava. Wandering through we can see the lumps of lava which were pushed up through the ground thousands of years ago. From the Reserve, you’ll spot Reres Hill, another Conservation Area, used as a public park since 1868 with lots of lovely paths to wander.
We reach the end of The Esplanade at Castle Green, now in the shadow of Broughty Ferry Castle sitting on a rocky promontory. It has seen its fair share of Scottish history, playing its part in The Rough Wooing of the mid-1500s and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in the mid-1600s. The castle gradually slid into decay after this, described as a ruin by 1787. In 1846 the railway purchased the castle to gain access to the shore for its ferry rail link. In 1855, the Government bought the castle as fears were growing of a threat from the Russian Navy after the Crimean War. The Government fully restored the structure, building barracks to the east of the castle; one of which we see standing today. The tower house became a lookout post, and in the event of war, submariners were to lay mines across the Tay. During the World Wars, the castle was used again for a heavy line of defence; nearby Castle Green became a battery and the castle a lookout post.
By 1969 the castle was handed into State care and opened as a museum operated by Dundee City Council. That arrangement continues today with Historic Environment Scotland caring for the structure. We wander around the Green and onto Castle Approach to visit the museum, seeing the Wind Dial on the harbour, a sculpture by Adrienne McStay, donated by Broughty Ferry Arts Society in 2006. The museum focuses on the life of the community, the castle and its military history; from the top of the tower, we have great views across the Firth to Tayport and along the shore into Dundee centre.
Leaving the castle, we wander along the harbour onto the seafront taking in the view. Since1891, every New Year’s Day the annual fisherfolk tradition of the ‘New Year’s Dook’ takes place here, when folks swim in the harbour to mark the turn of the year. It has never been cancelled, even in1989, when the water needed to be broken with pickaxes as the ice was that thick! We turn into the town to visit Visocchi’s, a Ferry institution whose owner was dubbed ‘Dundee’s Willy Wonka of Ice Cream’; they have been making 900 flavours of Italian ice cream here since 1975. Raspberry Ripples (or similar) demolished, we head back on Fisher Street along the seafront, a reminder to its past days as a fishing community. As we walk, we see the eclectic mix of architecture in the area, from small fisherman cottages to jute baron grand houses, and on Fisher Street are some of the Ferry’s oldest buildings.
Famous folk? Not many of a human variety but in 1943, Winkie the carrier pigeon was awarded a Dickin Medal for ‘delivering a message under exceptional difficulties and so contributing to the rescue of an Air Crew while serving with the RAF in February 1942’. You can view the heroine, Winkie, at the Dundee Museum and Art Gallery, The McManus.
We continue along the cycle route arriving at Stannergate where a coastal battery was located during both World Wars. It was known as HMS Condor, RAF Dundee and RNAS Dundee operating from 1914-1944, performing maritime patrols and training. Today it is Prince Charles Wharf, the last wharf to be built in the city for Kestrel Marine and opened by Prince Charles in 1979.
As we press on along the cycle path to reach the city centre, I’ll tell you about the city, a lot I’ll talk about as we do our tour, but here is a general picture - it’s been a busy place! Dundee is the 4th largest city in Scotland and the first city in the UK to be designated a UNESCO City of Design, awarded in 2014. It has reinvented itself 3 times across the centuries. Dundee was a well-established town by 1180, the first harbour being built in the 1200s. In 1239 a school was established, William Wallace being an early pupil, now known as the Dundee High School. There was a castle on Black Rock, near where the Tay Road Bridge is situated, which was destroyed by Robert the Bruce in 1312. In the 14-15th centuries Dundee grew through trade with the Baltic ports. It suffered greatly during the wars of the 16-17th centuries: bombarded, destroyed in 1547, pillaged, residents killed, and destroyed again in 1651. It took a century to recover and rebuild, growing via the linen industry and whaling.
By the 1850s jute, jam and journalism joined linen production and whaling, quickly becoming synonymous with the city. Jute and journalism will be talked about shortly but the jam I’ll just mention quickly. James and his mother Janet Keiller were the first to make marmalade commercially in the UK. The factory was founded in 1797 and production stayed in Dundee, under different company names, until the final factory closed in 1992, of which nothing remains. Shipbuilding also featured highly, having originally started with wooden vessels but by the mid-1800s they were being constructed of iron.
By 1870 the city centre had become squalid and polluted, so the City Improvement Act was passed in 1871. This saw the previous structures replaced with an imposing Victorian centre, much of which remains today as we will see as we walk about. By the turn of the century, the jute and whaling industries were in decline, and most of the other manufacturing sectors followed by the late 20th century. Over that time Dundee saw the arrival and departure of Michelin tyres and Timex and the arrival of NCR, who are still a large employer in the city today.
DC Thomson & Sons Ltd was established in 1905 and, though the printing is done elsewhere today, the headquarters are still based in the city. They are responsible for several well-known publications: The Press & Journal, The People’s Friend, The Beano and The Scots Magazine. There are 2 well-known comics which they once produced, Bunty (1958-2001) and The Dandy (1937-2012). I'm sure we’ll have heard of, or if not held, one of these publications at one point in our lives! It is also interesting to note that a subsidiary of DC Thomson is The Findmypast Group; they own a variety of large genealogy sites worldwide, including Findmypast and Genes Reunited!
Dundee has emerged from its past to become a prominent educational and research centre, specialising in information technology and biotechnology research and development. DMA Designs was founded in the city in 1987 by David Jones, developing the global phenomenon ‘Grand Theft Auto’, released in 1997. It has sold over 250 million copies worldwide and was followed by the hit game ‘Lemmings’. Although now based in Edinburgh, and called Rockstar North, the company left a legacy of gaming development in the city which includes YoYo Games and Tag Games. The University of Abertay runs a games course, attracting new talent; startups are a regular occurrence, ever-strengthening Scotland's gaming development industry.
There is also a strong literary, arts, sports and music heritage and culture in Dundee. Authors and poets include Kate Atkinson, Mary Shelley, Neil Forsyth and, of course, cited the world’s worst poet, William McGonagall. The city has several museums and galleries: The McManus Galleries (1867), Dundee Contemporary Arts (1999), Dundee Museum of Transport 2014), Dundee Science Centre (formerly Sensation, 2003) the V&A Dundee (2018), as well as several public museums and galleries run by the University of Dundee. There are a good number of football clubs, the most famous being Dundee Football Club and their rivals, Dundee United. Ice hockey is popular here and the city has a professional team, the Dundee Stars. Talking of stars, it is interesting to note that Dundee has an observatory, constructed in 1935, called the Mills Observatory at Balgay Park; the first purpose-built public observatory. Several music artists and groups have emerged from the city including Deacon Blue (Ricky Ross, lead singer, was born here), KT Tunstall (was at school here) and Snow Patrol, formed whilst attending the University of Dundee. Other notable people include Brian Cox, actor, Lorraine Kelly, TV presenter, and James Chalmers, who invented the adhesive postage stamp in 1840.
We now pass a very industrial part of Dundee where a great number of wharves, docks and quays lie along the route. During the 18th and 19th centuries they were increasingly required for this exceptionally industrious city: grain storage; weighbridges; oil refinery; and warehousing. We pass Caledon East Wharf, Tidal Harbour, Eastern Wharf, Princess Alexandra Wharf, Caledon West Wharf, King George V Wharf, Queen Elizabeth Wharf, Marine Wharf, and Dundee Harbour, which includes Victoria Dock. We enter the latter, passing the Dundee International Submarine Memorial erected in 2009 to commemorate past and present submariners.
HMS Unicorn sits in the dock as she has done for over 145 years. She was built in 1824 in Chatham, Kent, for the Royal Navy but was never used. The frigate was towed to Dundee in 1873, where she served the local naval units in a variety of roles, never rigged, until she was converted into a museum which opened in 1968. However, she did serve in both World Wars as the headquarters of the Naval Officer in Charge, Dundee. Seeing no action helped to preserve her timbers and she is, therefore, a rare survivor of sailing frigates. HMS Unicorn is one of the oldest British-built warships still afloat - listed as part of the National Historic Fleet. Her unusual roof is original, it was placed there by the Royal Navy when she was ‘kept in storage’ as a ‘ship in ordinary’; it would have been removed should she have been required to go into battle.
Victoria Dock sits in the shadow of a relative newcomer to the city, the Tay Road Bridge, completed in 1966 to replace the Tay ferry, known by locals as the ‘Fifie’. We leave the quayside and pass under the bridge to visit the V&A Dundee.
The newest arrival perched on the Tay shore, the V&A Dundee which opened in 2018, is the first Victoria and Albert museum outside of London and the first design museum in Scotland. Its powerful exterior stretches along the shoreline and suits its northern location, its shape inspired by Scottish rocky cliffs. Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, it is the first building to be designed by him in the UK and named as one of the best places to visit in the world by TIME Magazine in 2019. We wander through the arch of the structure to enter the museum; as well as other design works from across Scotland, the exhibit includes the Oak Room by Charles Rennie MacKintosh. Opinions are split on the harmony of the design with its functional purpose; I guess, as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Sitting next to the V&A Dundee, basking in its shadow, floats the RRS Discovery at Discovery Point. This Royal Research Ship was built by Dundee Shipbuilders' Company and launched in 1901. In 1904 she completed the National Antarctic Expedition with Robert Falcon Scott in command. It was funded by the Royal Geographical Society but, after spending 2 years locked in ice, they ran out of funds. In 1905 she was sold to the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) who used her to carry supplies to Northern Canada but sold her in 1913.
By World War 1 Discovery was back on HBC’s books carrying munitions cargo, used by them and the British Government for various tasks until she was bought in 1923 by the Government as a research ship. By 1935 she had worked hard at sea, but recognition of her national importance found her a role as a training ship for the Boy Scouts Association’s Sea Scouts. During World War 2 she served as a depot ship for the River Emergency Service but by the 1950s she was too expensive for the Sea Scouts to care for.
In 1954 the RRS Discovery was
transferred to the Admiralty becoming HMS Discovery, where she served as a
drillship for the Royal Navy Auxiliary Reserve. She passed into the care of the
Maritime Trust in 1979 who handed her over to the Dundee Heritage Trust in
1985. She returned home in 1986 to sit in Victoria Dock until her permanent
home at Discovery Point was completed in 1992. It's worth reading more of her
history in detail; she did a lot for such a wee ship. We take time to enjoy the
visit and the Tayside views, which includes the famous Tay Rail Bridge.
The Tay Rail Bridge opened in 1878, after having had ongoing difficulties with its construction and several changes made in the design. On the evening of 28th December 1879 during a violent storm, a section of the bridge known as the high girders collapsed with a train on it into the Tay, killing all on board. Sir Thomas Bouch, the designer, was found to blame and died within the year. The locomotive was salvaged from the Tay, repaired and put back into service until 1919, nicknamed ‘The Diver’. The bridge we now see was completed in 1887 but the stumps of the original bridge piers are visible alongside it. William McGonagall's "The Tay Bridge Disaster" is too long to post here but do look it up to see what your opinion is. C. Horne's ‘In Memory of the Tay Bridge Disaster’ describes the moment:
From the Tay we head into the city
centre following West Marketgate and the Nethergate, passing Dundee
Contemporary Arts Centre to cut through the University of Dundee Campus.
We press on through Horsewater Wynd and Guthrie Street to reach W Henderson’s
Wynd where the Verdant Works is located.
From the mill, we return to Guthrie Street then head straight through to Meadowside. On our left is DC Thomson’s headquarters. The business returned to the centre site in 2017 when they closed their Kingsway site. The building had been built for them between 1904-1906 in an American style featuring a 9-storey tower. Their offices overlook ‘The Howff’, a burial ground established in 1564 on land once part of Franciscan Monastery until the Scottish Reformation saw its demise. The unusual name comes from a Scots word for an enclosed space or courtyard. The last burial took place in 1878, the ground having seen over 80,000 burials during its use. As a result, it has one of the most important collections of tombstones in Scotland, featuring an unusually high number of Roman-style coffer tombs.
We continue along the same road and arrive at The McManus Art Gallery & Museum. The stunning Victorian Gothic structure began life in 1867, home to Dundee’s main collection and has been Dundee's centre of arts and culture ever since. It also celebrated the winning of the Scottish Thistle Award for Best Visitor Attraction in 2019/20. We spend time here before walking back to head down Reform Street, passing Desperate Dan and his dog, Dawg, immortalised in bronze by Angus-based artists, Tony and Susie Morrow, unveiled in 2001. The sculpture is in memory of the comic ‘The Dandy’, in whom the popular wild west character was featured; he is sculpted also being chased by Minnie the Minx, a ‘Beano’ comic character, wielding her famous catapult!
We follow our route through the remaining streets to the Tay Road Bridge to walk the 2.25 kilometres across the river - saying farewell to Dundee as we arrive in Fife at Newport-on-Tay. We turn left to follow the Fife Coastal Path. We have fantastic views across the Tay to Dundee, where Law Hill is easy to spot on the horizon, with the Sidlaw Hills further behind it. We pass the Tayport West and East Lighthouses, both built in the 1820s, now private properties having been decommissioned after 1845 when the Tayport Pile Lighthouse was completed and provided light until the 1960s.
We follow the roads nearest the water leading us to Tayport Harbour. Tayport, also known as Ferry-Port on Craig, was from where the ferry sailed to Broughty Ferry. Even before the arrival of the Arbroath and St Andrew’s Monasteries, there was a ferry which ran here in 1180; the monasteries became places of pilgrimage, so the ferries were busy. The passenger ferries eventually ceased in 1920, the rail ferries stopped, initially in 1878, but were put back to use after the Tay Rail Bridge disaster, until the new bridge was completed. Tayport is a commuter town today and the harbour used for leisure craft.
From the harbour, we follow a track along the shoreline through the East Common Recreation Ground, a play park with football pitches and a pond once used for boating and paddling, now converted into a haven for local wildlife. We walk along its Promenade, passing through parks to follow the Fife Coastal Trail out of the town.
At Tayport Heath, we head into Tentsmuir Forest where we keep to a coastal path for 11 kilometres until we reach the outskirts of Leuchars Station. As we walk this path, we pass through Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve, Tentsmuir Sands, a NatureScot area at Fetterdale and the Eden Estuary Nature Reserve.
In Tentsmuir, under the care of Forestry and Land Scotland, the trail dips and weaves between the trees and dunes with plenty of wildlife to spot. Walking the beach areas, we spot the remains of the World War 2 defences and, if we are lucky, we’ll spot grey and common seal. Unfortunately, it isn’t a bathing beach due to strong currents and quicksand but is an excellent place for shell collectors. As we walk in the latter area of Tentsmuir Sands naturism is permitted, thought I’d warn you just in case you spot any unusual sights!
The Eden Estuary Nature Reserve located on St Andrew’s Bay is where the River Eden meets the sea, forming an area of mud and sand flats which attract a large volume of birdlife, as well as otter and seal. On the other side of the estuary is West Sands which runs right along the coast into St Andrews.
We leave the coast now to walk a path through Reres Wood, taking us along the northern boundary fence of Leuchars Station.
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