April, 1821 In the early hours of a Saturday morning in late April, 1821, Margaret Shuttleworth woke up and made her way down to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. At the foot of the stairs lay the lifeless body of her husband, Henry. Neighbours awoke to Margaret’s deafening screams from the innRead 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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Anne Nicoll, 2001
Law hill, August 2001 As Anne Nicoll walked her parents’ Airedale terrier by the Law on 2nd August 2001, she became the victim of a brutal and senseless killing. Stabbed a total of 29 times, the body of Anne Nicoll had been so savagely mauled that even her bones had been cut. It emerged thatRead more ⟶
Dundee’s original castle
Shrouded in the mystery of time long past, the records sadly destroyed by the final battles it was engaged in. Dundee Castle was a legendary place in ancient Scotland’s history where King’s and Queen’s visited, and many battles were fought. The ancient settlement of Dundee, which in its earliest days consisted of two main streets,Read more ⟶
The Law
At around 174m tall and incorrectly named by many as ‘The Law Hill’, the word ‘Law’ refers to the Anglo-Saxon ‘hlāw’, which means ‘mound’. Actually, it means ‘grave-mound’, so read into that what you will about what lies beneath the surface. Used as a settlement over 3500 years ago, the Law has stood guard overRead more ⟶
Captain William Kidd
Piracy has been around almost as long as sailing itself. Our tale lands us near the end of the ‘Golden Age’ of piracy, with the rise and fall of a man from Dundee called William Kidd.
George Mealmaker
George Mealmaker was a legendery Dundee radical from the late 1700s, he founded the ‘Friends of Liberty’ – a slightly rowdy bunch who supported the ideals of freedom, liberty and equality for all.
Bonnie Susie Cleland
The song ‘Bonnie Susie Cleland’ tells a particularly brutal tale of a young Scots woman being burned at the stake by her family for falling in love with an Englishman.
The ghosts of Castle Huntly
Before Castle Huntly became a prison, it had a history all of its own – and a couple of its own ghosts, to boot; the White Lady and that of a young boy.
WW2 bombings in Dundee
London was the worst affected by the Blitz, and ports in places such as Glasgow came under heavy bombing. But Dundee was not to be spared, and on 5th November 1940, 8 bombs were dropped in Dundee.
Whuppity Stoorie
The legend of Whuppity Stoorie reads like a Scottish version of Rumplestiltskin, said to have taken place in Kittlerumpit – wherever that is!