Undiscovered Scotland

 

The City of Dundee is one of the 32 unitary council areas into which Scotland has been divided since 1996. It covers the urban area of Dundee plus a narrow fringe of countryside to its north-east and north-west. For accommodation in the City of Dundee and a full list of features, see our Angus & Dundee area pages.

 

Dundee is Scotland's fourth-largest city and lies on the north bank of the Firth of Tay. A city with an ancient history, Dundee has had to rebuild and reinvent itself three times in the last 350 years. It sees in the third millennium as it emerges from its most recent period of regeneration, and with a confidence not felt since the end of the 1800s.

The city is known historically for its shipbuilding and whaling, for its jam, and for its jute industry. It is also known for journalism and for comics: Dundee remains the home of D.C. Thomson, publishers of the Beano and the Dandy. You can read more about the development of Dundee as a city and its modern attractions on our Dundee Feature Page.

From the point of view of local authority coverage, Dundee formed part of the traditional county of Angus (and Forfarshire before it) right up to a major reorganisation in 1975. At that point, the City of Dundee came into being as one of three district council areas within Tayside Region, itself one of the 12 regions into which Scotland was divided.

When regions and districts disappeared from the scene in the 1996 reorganisation, the City of Dundee became one of the 32 unitary council areas into which the country has since been divided. The City of Dundee shares a short boundary to its west with Perth & Kinross, but is otherwise only bordered by Angus.