Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 17, 2007

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dundee (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Dèagh)—originally called Alectum—is the fourth-largest city in Scotland, with a population of 143,090. However, if outer districts such as Monifieth, Birkhill and Invergowrie, joined physically but not politically, are counted, the number is around 170,000. It is located on the north bank of the River Tay's estuary and so is near the east coast and the North Sea. Dundee is known as the City of Discovery, both in honour of Dundee's history of scientific activities, and of the RRS Discovery, Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic exploration vessel, which was built in Dundee and is now berthed there.

Its history began with the Picts in the Iron Age and during the medieval period was the site of many battles. During the Industrial Revolution the local jute industry caused the city to grow rapidly. In this period Dundee also gained a reputation for its marmalade industry and its journalism, giving Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism". Dundee's population reached a peak of nearly 200,000 at the start of the 1970s, but it has since declined due to outward migration and the council boundary changes of the 1970s and 1980s, which saw Dundee lose suburbs to the surrounding counties.