The Discovery
Discovering Dundee
Bairdstravel decided to head north to visit the Scottish city of Dundee.
Dundee is promoted as the City of Discovery, 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 in the city harbour. That was my main reason visiting the city to see Captain Scott`s ship.
When I planned the trip I never knew I would get Antarctic weather on route .
Bairdstravel on the Discovery Robert Burns
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Fancy a guided walking tour of the city . visit
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Took advantage of the Daily Record offer of anywhere in Scotland for a fiver .
Travelling with City Linking . We left Glasgow at 10.00 the weather was terrible.
By the time I reached Dundee the weather was very wet. My first stop was lunch. I decided to try the Old bank for a bite to eat and a beer. I had Haggis,neeps and tatties. Excellent value for money
After lunch I headed down to see the Discovery . Since I was a young boy I had read about Captain Scotts journeys to the Antarctic.
This is a must while visiting Dundee.
The Discovery was the last wooden three-masted ship to be built in Britain. Designed for Antarctic research, she was launched in 1901. Her first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, successful journey to the Antarctic, known as the Discovery Expedition. She is now the centrepiece of visitor attraction in her home, Dundee.
Discovery point is easy to find .Right on the river and very near the train station . Superb how they tell you the details of Scotts adventure.
Five months after setting sail on 6 August 1901 from the Isle of Wight, she sighted the Antarctic coastline on 8 January 1902. During the first month Scott began charting the coastline. Then, in preparation for the winter, he weighed anchor in McMurdo Sound. Unfortunately, this was where the ship would remain, locked in ice, for the next two years; the expedition had expected to spend the winter there and to move on in the spring.
Despite this, the Expedition was able to determine that Antarctica was indeed a continent, and they were able to relocate the Southern Magnetic Pole. Scott, Shackleton and Edward Wilson also achieved a Furthest South of 82 degrees 18 minutes. The ship was eventually freed on 16 February 1904 by the use of controlled explosives which allowed the ice to be moved away by butting and shunting, thus assisting in the break up of the ice. RRS Discovery finally sailed for home, arriving back at Spithead on 10 September 1904.
On 28 March 1986 Discovery left London aboard the cargo ship Happy Mariner to make her journey home to the city that built her, arriving on the River Tay on 3 April to a tumultuous welcome. Moved to a custom built dock in 1992 and listed as part of the National Historic Fleet
Next I`m off to the McManus. It was renamed 'McManus Galleries' in the mid 1980s in recognition of Maurice McManus OBE, twice Lord Provost of Dundee who championed works during the period which stabilised the building.
McManus Galleries houses a museum and art gallery with a collection of fine and decorative art as well as a natural history collection. The building was designed bythe guy that designed Glasgow University.[ George Gilbert Scott ]
The Tay Bridge disaster occurred on 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge, which crossed the Firth of Tay between Dundee and Wormit in Scotland, collapsed during a violent storm while a train was passing over it.
Nipped in for a pint in Tickety Boo`s before heading home on the bus.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN AND OWNED BY BAIRDSTRAVEL