15 Incredible Things Dundee Has Achieved
For a small city, Dundee has achieved so much. This is why I personally consider Dundee to be the best city in Scotland, its not because what we have when it comes to tourism like other cities across the country, its because the wave of achievements this city and the outer areas have achieved.
We are trailblazers and we have changed the world and here are things which Dundonians have achieved which makes me proud to be a Dundonian:
Discovering the Horsehead Nebula
Thanks to the incredible Williamina Fleming, a born and bred Dundonian, she discovered the Horsehead Nebula after pursuing a career in astronomy.
Williamina moved to the United States to advance her career. Due to her living a long time in the States, many there consider her as an American. But she wasn’t, she was an incredible Dundonian who was a trailblazer in her field.
During her lifetime, she discovered and studied hundreds of stars in our galaxy and also discovered the Horsehead Nebula which looks absolutely beautiful.
Building the world’s first scientific research ship
The RRS Discovery — sitting proudly at the Dundee Waterfront set sailed towards Antarctica in 1901 from the city after being built there.
The Discovery was a landmark for shipbuilding as it was the first ever purpose built ship designed for scientific research.
The Discovery was the ship that travelled to Antarctica for the successful Discovery expedition in 1901.
It’s incredible history has been immortalised, being one of few ships with the same name which inspired the name for the Space Shuttle Discovery and in Antarctica, an island was named after the Discovery’s home, “Dundee Island”.
Building the first purpose-built observatory in the UK
Mills Observatory sits on top of the beautiful Balgay Hill. But not a lot of people realise that it was the first purpose built observatory in the United Kingdom.
Originally, the observatory was supposed to be built on the summit of the Dundee Law however due to the outbreak of the First and Second World Wars along with the continued problems in constructing the observatory, it was later placed on Balgay Hill.
The observatory was praised by Patrick Moore who was a frequent visitor to the observatory and Apollo astronaut David Scott.
Becoming the first in offering degrees in computer game design
Abertay University is one of the best universities in Europe. Many from around the world have came to study at this incredible university. Abertay made history in 1997 when it became the first university in the world to offer degrees in computer games design.
Abertay has been named the best university to study video game design in Europe on six consecutive occasions. It is clear that this achievement
Creating one of the best selling video game series of all time
Grand Theft Auto has been a household name for decades and it continues to get popular. The brainchild of David Jones and Mike Dailly along with a host of others, Grand Theft Auto released in 1997 and it quickly spread to become one of the most popular games. DMA Design, which was founded in the city who developed Grand Theft Auto, renamed to Rockstar North and became so huge it moved away from Dundee and set up in Edinburgh.
But Rockstar has not forgot it’s roots, they recently bought over Ruffian Games, a gaming company based in Dundee, earlier in the year and then renamed it to Rockstar Dundee. This was the first time in over 20 years that Rockstar had a direct affiliation with the city.
Today, we have Grand Theft Auto fans awaiting very impatiently for the release of Grand Theft Auto VI. Many Dundonians know the roots of Grand Theft Auto being from the city but many around the world don’t.
But creating one of the best video game series really shows how the city has made an impact in the world of video games.
Becoming the first city to offer degrees in ethical hacking
Going back to Abertay University again and not only was the university the first in the world to offer degrees in computer game designs but in 2006, it also became the first in the world to offer degrees in ethical hacking.
This shows that the city and more importantly Abertay University have excelled in becoming a game changer in the world. As we advance in a world where hacking is happening more often, Abertay is leading the way in stopping it in it’s tracks.
Becoming the first UNESCO City of Design in the UK
No city in the United Kingdom was a UNESCO City of Culture up until 2014.
That was when Dundee became the first city to do so. It was a landmark achievement for the city as the year previously, Dundee failed to win the UK City of Culture bid.
Gaining this title made the UK City of Culture bid Dundee had look small because those who requested the city to gain this title from UNESCO stated that it wasn’t a thing Dundee would have for a year — but instead something which we would have permanently.
Having athletes who have achieved in the world of sports
Dundonians have achieved so much in the world of sports.
Liz Mccolgan and Dick Mctaggart are just two examples of incredible athletes from the city who have made an impact in the world of sports.
Liz Mccolgan, a former middle-distance and long-distance track and road-running athlete from the city, won the gold medal for the 10,000 metres at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo.
She also won a silver medal over the same distance at the 1988 Olympic Games. She was also a two-time gold medallist over the distance at the Commonwealth Games, as well as winning the 1992 World Half Marathon Championships, 1991 New York City Marathon, 1992 Tokyo Marathon and 1996 London Marathon.
Her 10,000 metres best of 30:57.07 set in 1991, made her only the third woman in history to run the distance in under 31 minutes. Both that time and her marathon best of 2:26:52 in 1997, still stand as Scottish records
Dick Mctaggart, an Olympian from the city competed in the 1956 and 1960 Olympics in the lightweight division and won a gold and a bronze medal, respectively. In 1956 he received the Val Barker Trophy for best boxing style at the Olympics — the only British athlete to achieve this feat.
At the 1964 Olympics McTaggart moved to the light-welterweight category, but lost in the third bout to the eventual winner Jerzy Kulej. McTaggart won the British ABA title in 1956, 1958, 1960, 1963 and 1965 and retired with a record of 610 wins out of 634 bouts.
Leading the way in eliminating malaria
In 2015, scientists at the University of Dundee’s Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) discovered a new compound which could not only treat malaria, but also potentially protect people from the disease and prevent its spread all in a single dose. The research documents on the compound — which is known as DDD107498 — were later published in Nature.
In 2019, researchers from the university were awarded Project of the Year 2018 at the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) for their discovery work on potential new drugs to tackle malaria.
Becoming the centre of a global jute industry
Back in the 19th century, Dundee became a haven for processing jute which sailed all over the world. It was an industry that the city was built on for many years.
At its height, in the late 19th century, Dundee boasted around 60 jute mills and more than 50,000 workers were employed by Dundee’s jute industry. The textile industry was one of Dundee’s main employers and Dundee was also a whaling port with a ready supply of whale oil that was used to process the raw jute.
Manufacturing the first commercial marmalade in the UK
Keiller’s marmalade was the first commercial brand of marmalade in Great Britain. It was named after its creator James and Janet Keiller (nee Mathewson).
It was made by James Keiller in Dundee, later creating James Keiller & Son, a brand name which became iconic in the 18th and 19th centuries, and has been sold several times.
Discovering a key enzyme to halt Parkinson’s disease
Scientists from Dundee discovered an enzyme which could halt Parkinson’s disease. Researchers at the University of Dundee discovered the enzyme PPM1H which could reverse mutations in a gene commonly associated with the development of Parkinson’s.
The enzyme has been found to naturally prevent the biological activity of LRKK2 — it is hoped this discovery could slowdown the progression of the disease.
Opening the first design museum in Scotland
The V&A Dundee has been an incredible achievement for many and it was Dundee that became the first city in Scotland to host a design museum. The incredible building situated on the waterfront opened in 2018 and it has helped Dundee attracted worldwide attention.
Designed by the amazing Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the V&A Dundee features exhibitions have links to Scottish design and it has attracted over one million visitors from across the world and it has contributed to a huge economic boost for Dundee and the rest of Scotland.
Becoming the first area in the world to eliminate hepatitis C
Back in August, Dundee and Tayside became the first area in the world to effectively eliminate hepatitis C. NHS Tayside said it was the first region in the world to meet targets for treating infected patients, 11 years ahead of schedule.
NHS Tayside worked with the University of Dundee on researching hepatitis C. They took a new approach to target people who inject drugs without waiting for them to go on to recovery programmes, to stop them spreading the virus.
Having the best hospital ever
Ninewells Hospital is one of the best hospitals out there. Built in 1974, it became the largest teaching hospital in Europe. Ninewells is internationally renowned for introducing laparoscopic surgery to the UK as well as being a leading centre in developing fields such as the management of cancer, medical genetics and robotic surgery.
Ninewells was also named earlier in the year as the best performing A&E hospital in the United Kingdom. What an incredible feat for our local hospital!
Inventing the graph
That’s 16, you’ve reached your limit. There is too many achievements. Here’s a bonus for you all. You could technically consider William Playfair as a Dundonian, he was born in Benvie, which at the time was on the outskirts of the city.
In 1786, William invented several types of diagrams including the line, area and bar chart of economic data, and in 1801 the pie chart & circle graph, used to show part-whole relation.
Overall
Dundee is a great place and we have done so many things which have made an impact on the world. This is all thanks to the incredible Dundonians who were born here, those who live here and those who work here. The people of Dundee should be very proud — they are amazing!
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