Away with the faeries I was sitting reading a book the other day by Stuart Hardy called ‘Speakin O Dundee’, when I came across a rather far-fetched tale of a young man called Jamie Moir from the Hilltown. Jamie was found by some local men one morning rather worse for wear on the slopes ofRead more ⟶
Category: Dundee History Archive
How to use the archive
Just keep scrolling down to see the most recent posts, and click previous at the bottom of the page to see more – be warned there are over 130 stories here! If you’re looking for something specific, use the search bar (there’s one in the footer on every page if you keep scrolling down, you’ll find it!) or click on any category (like crime and death, or wars and battles – the ones with the coloured backgrounds below each post) or one of the words in the tag cloud below to see all posts in a specific theme.
We hope you enjoy reading all the stories about Dundee’s dark history we’ve put together for you, but if you’re looking for things to do in Dundee why not take one of our walking tours!
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The Raid of Ruthven – Treason against the King
The Raid of Ruthven was a political conspiracy where several Presbyterian nobles, led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, abducted the young King James VI of Scotland. They wanted to reform the government of Scotland and limit the influence of French and pro-catholic policy, and to prevent or at least manage the return ofRead more ⟶
Admiral Adam Duncan
Few Dundonians are as well remembered for their contributions to battle than Admiral Adam Duncan, yet many of us may not even know who he is, despite there being a statue dedicated to him in the centre of town. The lands now known to us as Camperdown Park were gifted to him because of hisRead more ⟶
Frances Wright
In her book “Frances Wright and the ‘great experiment’”, Margaret Lane notes that very few people today have heard of Frances (Fanny) Wright, despite being a famously notorious figure on both sides of the Atlantic. Her views during the first half of the 19th century shocked both her peers and, in fact, whole countries! EvenRead more ⟶
Return of the zombies
Well, if you’ve read our last post on Castle Horror’s Zombie MAYhem, you’ll know we had an absolute (Tay) whale of a time! Saturday past was no exception either as we rocked up to Mains Castle for the 2nd instalment of the zombie madness. The first thing we noticed was the size of the groupRead more ⟶
Town-House of Dundee 1734
In 1734 a new Town-House was completed on the former site of St Clement’s Church, which we know today as City Square. The building was a fairly grand structure, as was indicative of its multiple uses, with beautiful arched piazzas which looked out onto what is now Reform Street. It was locally referred to asRead more ⟶
Health Report, 1896: General Mortalities
If you have read our previous post on the Dundee Health Report of 1896 into zymotic diseases, you’ll already know that disease was prevalent in our city – just like in any other – with all sorts of nasties just waiting to bump you off without so much as a warning. The Health Report alsoRead more ⟶
The Rough Wooing
The Rough Wooing was a very tumultuous time in Dundee’s history, during which almost the entire town was destroyed. In 1543 England was feeling trapped and surrounded by Catholic powers. Scotland was still part of the ‘auld alliance’ with France and Catholicism still reigned here, so the English worried about the potential for invasion fromRead more ⟶
Health Report, 1896: Zymotic diseases
In March of 1897, the Public Health Department, which at that time was situated in West Bell Street, issued the ‘Vital Statistics’ report for Dundee for the previous year to the town Council’s sanitary committee. In 1896, the population was estimated at 161,620 (in 2014, the estimate was 141,870), with the number of registered deathsRead more ⟶
Cholera sweeps Dundee, 1832.
Cholera caused more deaths, more quickly, than any other epidemic disease in the 19th century and in Dundee, with no clean water and no real means of sanitation, many people fell gravely ill and died.