Dundee Conference; 9-15 August 2013

Known for 'Jute, Jam and Journalism', Dundee is the stepping stone to a beautiful part of Scotland coursed through by the Rivers Tay and Dee.

Scotland's warmest city, Dundee connects Fife - by a 'mighty long bridge' (said General Grant), 'which will be remembered for a very long time' (Wm McGonagall) - to a waterfront where investment now centres on culture. In the medieval core of the city there was the jam and is the journalism. Plentiful jute, linen, and engineering factories, retained through adaptive re-use, cling to the sides of the volcanic Law Hill. Docks and wharves house the city's maritime industries and two historic ships.

North is Angus and Mearns, fertile farmland and towns once dedicated to linen weaving, skirted by a picturesque coast still important to traditional fishing and maritime industries. To the North East, oil has transformed Aberdeen, but still it is 'granite city'. West is the valley of the river Tay, its former lowest bridging point at the city of Perth, a rural hinterland of bleachfields, water-powered spinning and fruit-growing, all to a mountain backdrop whence hydro power is drawn.

The old counties of Angus, Perthshire, Kincardineshire and Aberdeenshire each cross the Highland line from busy Lowland to romantic Highland Scotland, with consequent topographic challenges to engineers, varied geology represented in local buildings, and an opportunity to define local whisky as Highland malt. In a time of economic change, the industrial archaeology of the region is outstanding in quality and presents even now many a chance for discovery, for reinterpretation and reinvigoration of an urban/rural industrial landscape. Come and help us to better appreciate and understand what we have.

Mark Watson
Scottish Industrial Heritage Society

40th Anniversary Conference

The Association's 40th conference will be held this year at Dundee University, organised with the Scottish Industrial Heritage Society, Scottish Transport and Industry Collections, Knowledge Network, and others. The University has an extensive city centre campus which is spread over the steep hillside of the city. Delegates will have to walk between the accommodation buildings, which are at river level, uphill and across the busy Perth Road to the refectory and to the lecture theatre, distances of up to 400 yards.

The format of the conference will be that adopted for many years and will commence on Friday with a morning Seminar on iron structures, including the Tay and Forth rail bridges and Linlathen Bridge. This will be followed by a choice of afternoon visits, all with some walking, tour A entirely on foot, B and C making use of a coach mainly to drop and collect small groups at the Tay Rail Bridge.

The main conference from Friday evening to Sunday lunch time features an evening BBQ and key introductory lecture at the Discovery, Scott's ship. The Saturday programme will discuss local and national projects, and reports on the Association's grants and awards. There will be opportunity for members to give contributions, and those wishing to do so should write to me at the address below, with details of their topic. The formal conference dinner, held on the frigate HMS Unicorn will be preceded by a civic reception on board.

From Sunday afternoon to Thursday afternoon there will be a series of coach trips to industrial sites between the Rivers Tay and Dee, in the old counties of Angus, Fife, Perthshire, Kincardineshire, and Aberdeenshire, with related evening talks. Some of the sites visited have restricted numbers and will be allocated on a first come basis, so please book early. The trips on Tuesday will be to Aberdeen and vicinity. Because of the distance both the evening meal and evening talk will be at the Links Hotel in Montrose.

All bedrooms have en-suite shower facilities and three-quarter bed. For those wishing to share there is a reduced price. It is however essential that separate application forms be completed for each delegate stating clearly with whom they are sharing. It will be helpful if both applications are sent in the same envelope so as to arrive together. Several of the visits involve walking longer distances and/or climbing into places with restricted headroom etc. Delegates, in deciding which tours to apply for, must consider their agility etc. The Association reserves the right to refuse to admit delegates should it be considered that their mobility is not consistent with the nature of the visit.

John McGuinness
Conference secretary

Details of the visits and booking forms are available below. These are in Adobe pdf format and require Adobe Reader (available free) to view and print them.

Visit notes

Booking form, front

Booking form, back

Terms and Conditions

A free Adobe pdf reader can be downloaded here.