Dundee: A Scottish City Study

Abstract

DUNDEE: A SCOTTISH CITY STUDY* S. J. Jones University College, Dundee: University of St. Andrews Dundee is an old Royal Burgh of Scotland, which ultimately played its part in the rapid development of industrial life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Like most British cities with a similar history, it presents, therefore, the marked contrast between the compact settlement of pre-nineteenth-century days and^ the constant expansion of city limits and buildings in the more recent phase. The contrast can be seen in the map showing the city's growth, Figure 1. In terms of initial growth, therefore, site values concern the old settlement alone, and the larger area within the present city limits is a part of the immediate environment. For this reason, the term "Dundee region" will be used here for the area which has, up to the present, been incorporated within the contemporary city limits, and will not be used in the general sense of wider regional associations . This distinction can be seen in the geologic and topographic maps, Figures 2 and 3 ; and apart from its importance in the assessment of the early city, it carries a further significance in the fact that the spread of the city organization over the expanded industrial area of the nineteenth century and later brings with it a social-economic integration that gives the city a specific regional character. The growth of the city region has been largely the product of its possible relationships with other areas, both near and far, and in the final analysis it represents a concentration, or segregation, within a world economic and social fabric. Site and Region The potential human significance of the large estuaries of the Tay and the Forth in relation to the regular east coast of Scotland and to the Midland Valley is clear even from an atlas map. The use of such potentialities is shown by the emergence, on the south bank of the Forth, of Edinburgh and Leith, and of Stirling as the bridge point; on the Tay, Dundee and Perth represent essentially the same pattern. It is not surprising, therefore, that during medieval times, when trade with Europe favored an east-coast site, Dundee rose to be the second city of Scotland. The Tay estuary (Fig. 4) narrows toward its mouth, where river and tidal current have had to cut through a band of basalt and andésite, giving rise to the headlands of Broughty Ferry on the north and Tayport on the south. Seaward from these narrows are the sand dune areas, partly developed on the 25-foot raised beach of Barry Links to the north and Tents Muir on the south. These culminate in sandspits, Gaa Spit and Abertay Spit respectively. These spits, while they offer difficulties to navigation, provided a further line of protection to the anchorages of the Tay. The natural channel of the Tay is near the south shore; the north shore is an area of deposition. This fact, as will be seen, made the possible silting-up of the harbor a constant menace. The geologic and topographic features of the region are shown in Figures 2 and 3 [l]. Essentially it is a quite typical segment of the Midland Valley of Scotland. The main elements in its solid geology are the Old Red Sandstone and intrusive igneous rocks of lower Old Red Sandstone age. To the east, there is a considerable extent of contemporary lavas. The highest lands are in the west, where heights between 500 and 600 feet are reached in Dundee Law and in the northwest of the city. Some of the higher ground is correlated with exposures of the igneous intrusive rocks, as in the ridge that culminates in Balgay Hill and the Law. Drainage is principally toward the southeast. The other element in the physical environment is the cover of glacial deposits. The Law is covered with glacial drift almost to the top of its northwestern face [2], and the whole physical landscape has glacial characteristics. * Limitations oi space have made necessary a drastic abridgment of Mr. Jones's original manuscript .—Ed. 1948of Pacific Coast Geographers11 The outline of the old city is shown in both Figures 2...