Dundee (Lat. Taodunum, 'hill or fort on the Tay'), a' city' (since 1889) of Forfarshire, on the left bank of the estuary of the Tay, here 2 miles broad, 10 miles from the sea, and 50 NNE. of Edinburgh. It stands mostly on the slope between Dundee Law (571 feet high) and Balgay Hill and the Tay. Its most striking architectural features are the Roman Ionic town-hall (1734), by the 'Elder Adam,' with a spire 140 feet high; the Albert Institute, free library, etc. (1865-89), in 15th-century Gothic, from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott; the Royal Exchange (1856), in the Flemish pointed style of the 15th century; the Eastern Club House; the Kinnaird Hall, holding 2000 people; the infirmary; the Justiciary and Sheriff Court Buildings; the Town's Churches, with the old steeple (156 feet). Dundee University College, instituted by Miss Baxter for the education of both sexes in science, literature, and fine art, was opened in 1883, and incorporated with St Andrews University in 1889. Dundee has several public parks, one of which, the gift of Sir David Baxter, on a beautiful slope to the east, is 37 acres in extent; another of 60 acres, to the west, occupies the hill of Balgay. Dundee is the chief seat in Great Britain of the manufacture of coarse linen fabrics (Osnaburgs, sheetings, ducks, dowlas, drills, canvas, and cordage). Manufactures of jute are also carried on here on an immense scale. Dundee besides is famous for its manufacture of marmalade and other confectionery; and it is the centre of the whale and seal fishing trade of Great Britain. Shipbuilding (both wood and iron) and machine-making are carried on. Besides the tidal harbour, Dundee has magnificent wet-docks, two graving-docks, and a slip for large vessels. The docks have been erected at a cost of upwards of £700,000; and the tonnage of vessels entering the port exceeds in some years half a million. The direct railway communication of Dundee with the south, established in 1878 by the Tay Bridge, was interrupted on 28th December 1879, when a great part of the bridge and a passenger-train passing over it were thrown into the river. A new and more substantial bridge was built, 20 yards higher up the river, at a somewhat lower elevation, and was opened for traffic in 1887. It is 3593 yards long, and has a clear height above high-water mark of 77 feet. Pop. (1841) 63,732; (1901) 161,173. Dundee returns two members. Since 1892 its chief magistrate is styled Lord Provost. Edward I. was here twice. Wallace is said to have taken the castle in 1297, and Bruce demolished it in 1313. The Duke of Lancaster burned Dundee in 1385, and the Marquis of Montrose pillaged it in 1645. On the refusal of Dundee to submit to Cromwell, General Monk, in 1651, sacked and burned it, massacring 1000 citizens and soldiers, and filling 60 vessels with booty, which were totally wrecked on their voyage to England. Dundee was one of the first Scotch towns to adopt the Reformation. Wishart the martyr preached here during the plague of 1544.

See works by Thomson (1847), Beatts (1873-82), Maclaren (1874), Norrie (1876), Hay (1880), Millar (1887), Maxwell (1884-92), and Lamb (1895).