During our visit to Newton Farm in Angus, our host Louise arranged a walking tour of Dundee with Dark Dundee.
Isaac and Eliza are at the age where they find history fascinating and thanks to books and TV programs like Horrible Histories, the more macabre, the better and any tale with a ghost story had them hooked.
Dark Dundee was created by two local Dundonians, Stewart and Louise who have a thirst for finding out all the dark stories of their town and so created tours of Dundee to share fascinating tales of dark history.
We met up with them in Dundee City Square and after a brief set of introductions, we were soon immersed in some local history. Louise is the main story-teller with Stewart jumping in with some finer details and fun for the kids, whom they kept engaged throughout the tour.
I did my first walking tour in Bournemouth a few months ago and was amazed by the things we walk past everyday and never pay attention to. A Dark Tour of Dundee is similar in that it points out all the hidden gems of the city, like Viking Longboats holding up the balcony on the buildings in City Square and the memorial to the medieval church St Clements which once stood on that very site.
Next up was the tale of the nine maidens when we arrived at the Dragon Sculpture just a short walk away in the High Street. Although the kids enjoyed the story they were more than keen to follow in the footsteps of local children and climb the dragon.
As we continued our walk we were taken through some of Dundee’s darkest days, covering some of the wars and battles, local legends as well as tales of crime and death in the city. The kids were fascinated by the stories of the Cholera pandemic in the 19th Century and we were shown the mass grave of thousands of victims which is marked only by a cobble pathway and one remaining gravestone of William Forrest Esquire, a Lieutenant Colonel with the Hon EIC Bengal Army in the Howff.
By far our favourite story was all about the Tay Whale, a 40ft humpback whale that appeared in the Firth of Tay back in 1883. Whaling was big business then and many of the whalers set out to hunt down the beast, failing several times to capture it. The whale was later found dead out near Stonehaven and towed back to Dundee where it was sold at auction, to local entrepreneur John Woods who then proceeded to make a lot of money by displaying the poor dead whale, charging people to come and see it and when it was too decayed to display it, did a live autopsy instead. (Trust me, the way they tell it was much more disgusting). The whales skeleton is now on display in the McManus Museum.
There are four different walks to try; Dark History, Dead Centre, Twisted in Time and Crimes of Passion and a new special tour, Deceased in the East which is running from 6th-11th March, or you can go it alone in a private group tour like we did.
The walks are suitable for most ages and abilities and are well worth doing as you are shown things that you would have walked past and not looked at twice. Dark Dundee Walking Tours cost from £10 per head, see their website for more details of dates and times.
I totally LOVE things like this!! They are so much fun and sooo interesting! Who knew this about little old Dundee!?
This is just so interesting, what a fun walking tour to do. Learning about history in such a fun way and seeing so many interesting sights along the way.
An interesting tour great to see different sites and learn some history
This looks great and really interesting too. This is something i would go on x
This seems like an incredibly informative tour. The sculptures are stunning and terrifying at the same time.
i love taking on walking tours especially on historical museums. You’ll learn so many informations.
I love walking tours and definitely need to do some more of them in new cities x
What a fab idea and a great way to see the city x
What an interesting and exciting tour! My son would love clambering on the dragon too.
Ooh sign me up, the darker the history, the better. I love that the kids were fascinated by Cholera!
What a great activity, and fantastic photos! Fun and interesting too 🙂
Ooh I do love things like this and I never knew there was a dark history x
I lived near St Andrews for a few years and while I knew some of these places I really wish I had done this and learnt more about Dundee.
We’ve never taken part in a walking tour before, but it looks fantastic! 🙂
This is awesome. I loved seeing the cobblestone streets and I bet the stories of the Cholera pandemic were super interesting!
Love the story about the whale. We have a humpback whale that comes to our local area in Norfolk every winter. What a fascinating story.
Looks like a very interesting tour, not been on this before but it looks good
Looks like a very interesting tour! Not heard of it before, but would definitely give it a go if I ever visit!
Kayleigh x
The tour sounds like it was fun. I love the dragon and that children can climb on it.
I’ve never been to Dundee, but I would love to go. Sounds like a fun time was had.xo
I love things like this where you see part of town you wouldn’t normally find!!
I love history and this sounds like so much fun! Not sure about the whale story though that does sound a bit gross but still interesting to hear about.
the tour looks like a lot of fun! I am a bit of a history fanatic myself and can’t wait for my son to catch up too so we can do things like these! x
This looks like it was super interesting and really reasonably priced too