The City of Dundee
There was a settlement
here in Roman times traces exist of a hill fort on Dundee Law and
standing-stones with Roman camp sites in the neighborhood. In a.d
834 Kenneth MacAlpine used this as his base when he set out to
conquer the Picts and become first King of the Scots. But the
first settlement in fact was probably a small fishing community
between St Nicholas C'raig (now Craig Pier) and Castlehill
promontory. These rocky headlands provided a sheltered bay (long
since reclaimed) from which grew the seaport.
William the Lion
granted Dundee a royal charter in the late 12th cent because his
brother David earl of Huntingdon- had lands in the neighborhood,
and it was the latter, having already established the Abbey of
lindores who founded the church of St Mary, and on the site stands
the handsome parish church with its famous Old Steeple, focal
point of the city. The original church had hardly been completed
when in 1296 Edward I of England sacked the town and
burned the church. It was steadfastly rebuilt, but again in 1385
an English army pillaged the town
and burned the church. The next rebuilding was on a more ambitious
scale, almost that of a
cathedral, and. the Town Council having taken over responsibility
from the Abbey of Lindores.
the work was completed by the addition of the great bell-tower,
now known as the 'Old Steeple'.
But the church's troubles were not over. for in 1547 an English
fleet sailed up the Firth Tay to
besiege thee city and once more the church was destroyed, a small
consolation being that when the Reformers descended on the city
there was nothing left for them to tear down. But in due course St
Mary's rose again in splendor only to be burned again. All that
now1 remains of the great 15th-cent. parish church is the Old
Steeple
(containing historical displays and open to the public), while on
the main site have risen the City
churches housing three congregations under one cruciform roof. and
set among gardens in the very heart of the city.
In 1644 a Dundee regiment had fought at Marston Moor and a year
later the town was captured by the Marquess of Montrose. Sacked
and burned: but probably the worst disaster came at the hands of
Cromwell in 1651. when General Monek with 4.000 men was sent to
deal with latent Stuart sympathies. Thinking that the church would
be sate sanctuary, the Town Council removed all valuables to the
Old Steeple, but Monck's men. having sacked the town and. as was
their habit, used the church as a stable, gathered all the old
books and documents from the church library, stacked them round
the tower and set them on fire. sprinkling the blaze with water to
smoke out the defenders: this time the town took nearly a century
to recover. The Town Council and citizens had supported the 1715
Jacobite Rising: James VIII (thee Old Pretender) was proclaimed at
the Mercat Cross. and he visited the town in 1716. But the 1707
Union with England. while it wrecked Dundee's traditional woollen
trade, brought prosperity to a new flax and linen industry. This
was reflected in the building of a Town House by William Adam in
1734. and soon the espousal of the Jacobite cause was seen as a
threat to economic progress. Lord Ogilvy of Airlie. with a
detachment of the Forfarshire Regiment, took the
town for Prince charles Edward Stuart in I745 and locked up the
Provost and Council in their own gaol (that Provost was Alexander
Duncan. father of the admiral who was victor of Camper-down). and
when the news of the Culloden
disaster was
received public rejoicing was ordered.
A few months later the Freedom of the Burgh was conferred on the
victorious 'Butcher' Cumberland an odd display of changed
loyalties. Quite soon the town walls had been demolished as
redundant, except for the Cowgate (correctly Cowgait, meaning a
way or street, not a 'gate') or East Port. preserved as a small
reminder of troubled days, and from about I 760 Dundee flourished
with its linen industry. Then in 1822 the East India Company sent
samples of a new fibre, jute, from India and thanks to the ready
availability of whale oil. added to jute to make it more workable,
from the long-established whaling industry and an abundance of skilled women workers trained in the
spinning and weaving of flax Dundee became a boom town, within
fifty years the population leaped from 35.000 to 130,000. and
factories and tenements shot up in profusion. This jute prosperity
lasted for more than 100 years, until India herself developed the
capacity to manufacture the raw material. Jute is still vital to
the town's economy, but there has been great diversification among
the old firms into new processes and new fabrics. engineering and
even bronze-casting, a wealth of
new industries have been attracted and the harbour facilities and
shipbuilding industry have been transformed in recent years by the
advent of North Sea oil. Because of its numerous fire's and
destructive visitations. Dundee has little to show of its past
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