126 Desperate Dan WALK 20

Dundee Law and Hill

Distance 7.75km/4.75 miles unexplored corners of the world. At its Time 2 hours helm, when launched in 1901, was one Start/Finish Discovery Point, Robert Falcon Scott. GR NO404298 Terrain Pavement, woodland and Cross the A991 at Riverside parkland paths and tracks roundabout onto Dock Street. Turn left Map OS Landranger 54 onto Crichton Street and climb past the Public transport Regular trains Overgate Centre. Swing right onto High and buses from across Street beside the – named to Dundee after Sir James Caird who amassed his fortune through the jute trade – and As Scotland’s fourth largest city, then left onto Reform Street, passing a Dundee has a wealth of beautiful statue of comic-book stalwart, Desperate buildings, as well as a fascinating Dan. Continue along Reform Street to its recent history based around ‘jute, end beside the stunning McManus Art jam and journalism’ – with Gallery and a statue of Robert Burns. Desperate Dan, Dennis the Menace and Oor Wullie among the Here, turn left onto Meadowside, celebrated comic creations in local passing the DC Thomson building and publisher DC Thomson’s stable. Cemetery where Greyfriar’s This walk climbs through the city Monastery used to stand (after the to the vantage point of monastery was burnt down, Mary Queen and also visits Balgay Hill, home of Scots gifted the land to the city). to the UK’s only full-time public observatory. Turn right onto Constitution Road, walk past the University of Abertay and The walk begins beside the historic through an underpass beneath the A991. Royal Research Ship Discovery, moored Head right, up a flight of steps, back by the banks of the Tay at Discovery onto Constitution Road which then Point. With much of Britain’s whaling climbs steeply onto Upper Constitution fleet built and based in Dundee at the Street, culminating at its junction with time, it was here in the late 1800s that Kinghorne Road. the Royal Geographical Society commissioned the construction of a Turn right, then left onto Law Road. vessel specifically designed to explore Take the first left (still Law Road) to Antarctica – at the time one of the last climb past allotments, ignoring a path

127 The Tay

Law of the Land Rising to a height of 174m, Dundee Law – part of an extinct volcano – is a familiar city landmark. With its key defensive position, the Law was the site of an Iron Age hill fort, while it was also well used by the Romans, possibly as a look-out post. In the 1820s, the Law had a 300m-long tunnel driven through its eastern side to accommodate the Dundee & Newtyle Railway, although this only operated until the 1860s when a new railway line was built to skirt the hill. Today, the summit is adorned by an impressive war memorial, with its beacon lit every year on 25 September (to remember the many local men who served in the 4th Battalion of the Black Watch and lost their lives in the Battle of Loos in 1915), 24 October (United Nations Day), Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

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