Focus on… Dundee
Don’t tell Dennis the Menace, but Dundee might be Britain’s coolest little city, says Gary Parkinson
If you’ve ever eaten marmalade, read The Beano, played Grand Theft Auto or kept the kids quiet with Minecraft, you owe Dundee.
Having long profited from whaling and wool, the east-coast port grew into a Victorian powerhouse based on “jute, jam and journalism” - the latter being the still fiercely independent publishing firm DC Thomson, the former the fibre in whose manufacture Dundee once led the world before a familiar tale of overseas competition and closing mills.
Now Scotland’s fourth-largest city, Dundee is still finding new mercantile avenues. Traditionally a well-educated place punching well above its weight in scientific knowledge, it has become a hub of biomedicine and biotechnology – and its various videogaming and app-creating firms are said to account for 10 percent of the UK’s digital entertainment industry.
That thirst for learning continues at two universities – one of which, Abertay, launched the world’s first computer games degree in 1997 and is now world-renowned for it, attracting global talent to those local digital studios.
In all, students account for one in seven of the population, one of Europe’s highest proportions, constantly rejuvenating a city already enjoying a £1 billion waterfront renovation centred on the first Victoria & Albert Museum branch outside London. Among those who have recently queued to acclaim Dundee are style counsellors GQ magazine (Coolest Little City in Britain) and bankers’ bible the Wall Street Journal (Worldwide Hot Destinations). All this and Dennis the Menace too.
Starting out Cleghorn Street is handy for the city centre and university, and for a reasonable £49,950 there’s a one-bed flat with river views from its capacious lounge.
Great for families... Try the West End, where there’s a large three-bed two-storey flat on the Perth Road for £222,500, or go in the opposite direction to the former village of Broughty Ferry, where for £285,000 there’s a pretty three-bed taking up the ground floor of a mansion house with beautiful gardens.
Just won the lottery? £795,000 buys The Boreen, a beautiful Arts & Crafts four-bed house combining West End proximity with extensive enclosed gardens and secluded setting. You also get three reception rooms, games room, a double garage and a fifth bedroom currently used as a laundry.
THE COST OF LIVING
Average rent: Around £650 per month; one-beds are around £400, two-beds £600, three-beds £900 and four-beds £1300 - although there’s a four-bed semi in Maryfield right by Baxter Park for £950.
Average house price: One-beds vary with location but most are around £50,000-£70,000; there’s a modernised top-floor flat on Dudhope Street, central and near the uni, for £62,000. The four-bed average of £280,000 is dragged up by newbuilds, but for £265,000 you could get your own viewing tower in a Scottish Baronial townhouse converted from the former Liff Hospital.
Average rental yield: The housing estates spreading north through DD3 and DD4 can yield six percent; the desirable West End should gather five percent, perhaps more from multiple-occupancy students.
Average house price rise: Dundee is still underpriced: this year’s £167,052 is up just 1.46 percent on 12 months ago.
Average salary: Dundee City’s £25,308 is below the UK average of £30,629 and comparable with Rotherham, Rochdale and the Rhondda. A January 2019 report cited Dundee’s employment rate at 65 percent, below the UK average of 76.3 percent and lower than any other major UK town or city except Blackburn.
Average price of a pint: £3.29.
Council tax: £877.33 to £3,221.20.
DUNDEE AT A GLANCE
Connections: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen – the only larger Scottish cities – are each around 90 minutes by car or train.
Amenities: 4/5 Plenty of education and culture - McManus Galleries (also a museum), V&A Dundee, Verdant Works jute museum, D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, Tayside Medical History Museum, the Mills Observatory, Sensation Science Centre; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee Repertory Theatre, Caird Hall.
Festivals and events: Design (May), Almost Blue (blues music, Jun), Blue Skies (outdoor activities, Aug), Flower and Food (Sep), Science (Oct), Literary (Oct), Discovery Film (Oct), Jazz (Nov), NEoN (digital art, Nov), Mountain Film (Nov), Light Nights (Nov).
Open space: 4/5 The Law hilltop dominates the city, which also offers Balgay, Baxter, Caird and Finlathen Parks among many others. Then there’s the North Sea coast, and the Cairngorms National Park is just 30 miles north.
Landmarks: The war memorial atop The Law; Captain Scott’s Antarctic research ship Discovery; 15th-century St Mary’s Tower; Mains, Dudhope, Claypotts and Broughty Ferry Castles; the 282ft Cox’s Stack chimney.
Schools: 2/5 Scottish Government stats had Dundee bottom of the league in 2018 but the fightback with 2019’s leap above Edinburgh. Grove Academy (Broughty Ferry) and Harris Academy (West End) topped the city’s percentages for pupils getting five or more Higher (similar to English AS levels).
Crime: 2/5 For 2018/19 Police Scotland reported 595 crimes committed in Dundee per 10,000 population, above Scotland’s 453 average but below Edinburgh (607) and Glasgow (717).
Famous faces: Actor Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy), feline MP George Galloway and Grand Theft Auto developer David Jones are all proud Dundonians. TV-sofa stalwart Lorraine Kelly lives in Broughty Ferry but was born in Glasgow’s Gorbals.
HEAD FOR RURAL BLISS IN…
Carnoustie
If you like golf – or your partner does and you like quiet - consider Carnoustie, 12 miles east of Dundee. Globally renowned for its championship course, the Angus coastal village is also a popular Dundonian dormertown, with commuters tempted by its peaceful beach, once marketed as “the Brighton of the North”.
Dunkeld
Thirty miles west, just before the A9 highway to the Cairngorms, is the pretty Perthshire town of Dunkeld. Drenched in history, the former royal seat and battle site has several National Trust “little houses”, a Thomas Telford bridge and the last vestige of Macbeth’s Birnam Wood.
Crail
Many Dundee workers commute south over the Tay Bridge; 25 miles south-east of the city is the beautiful East Neuk of Fife, a much-loved stretch of coast. Perhaps its most Instatastic fishing village is Crail, all fresh seafood, cobbled streets, amateur photographers, food festivals and long-distance coastal paths.
