A little while back I hopped on a train from Glasgow to try and determine just how accessible Dundee is, and to spend the day reviewing access at various tourist attractions around the city. I headed up there with some friends of mine from Euan’s Guide, and our ultimate mission was to uncover as many of the accessible gems that Dundee had to offer, as was possible.
Once we arrived, we met with other members of the Euan’s Guide Ambassador Network at Dundee’s Discovery Point, which is an awesome museum situated right next-door to RRS Discovery – the legendary research ship that launched in 1901. Discovery point is also impressively positioned near the mouth of the River Tay; offering impressive views across the water to Newport-on-Tay and beyond.
Once gathered, our tasks for the day were divided out between everyone present; with many of the potential places to review listed on a handy map of the city centre. One of the spots listed to check-out was Dens Park, home of Dundee Football Club and quite far away from our starting point. To me, it therefore seemed to represent the ultimate challenge given the allotted amount of time we had to complete our reviews. I decided that this was the first place I wanted to head towards; not withstanding the fact that I’m a fairly big fan of football and I was also relishing the idea of going somewhere a little bit different from the norm.
After hopping on a local city centre bus (with step-free easy access) my friend and I arrived at Dens Park and were lucky enough to blag a free tour of the grounds – which was made even more special given that some of the players were there preparing for their upcoming match that weekend. We were shown around by a guy named Keith Haggart, and his knowledge of the club and his attention detail when giving us our whistle-stop tour (time was of the essence) was really awesome. I’m pleased to say that the grounds were fairly accessible too – but you can check out more on that by taking a look at my Euan’s Guide review!
Getting too and from Dens Park via bus took up most of the morning, so when we reconvened as a group at the McManus Galleries for a catch up and a bite of lunch, we had to come up with a strategy for maximising the amount of reviews we completed that afternoon. We figured that the best plan of attack for the remainder of the day was to not stray too far from the rest of the ambassadors – and so we rounded off our visit by calling into a few more pit-stops and tourist attractions around the city – all of which you can see more of over on the Euan’s Guide site!
Getting to Accessible Dundee
Despite the day spent in Dundee being an extremely long and exhausting one – it was still a really rewarding experience to head up there with Euan’s Guide on an accessibility scouting mission, and I must say Dundee is definitely a place that I would recommend for others to visit – disabled and non-disabled alike. What’s more, with trains running from Glasgow to Dundee only taking just over an hour and costing around £20 for a return when booking in advance – Dundee is the perfect location for a day trip or as part of a grander Scotland tour!
What’s also pretty nifty is that the ScotRail service to Dundee was accessible for us all, attested to by the fact that in our party alone, three wheelchair users were painlessly boarded onto the train thanks to booked assistance. I was also grateful to find that the accessible loo was fully functional and the overall journey was extremely comfortable. It really does beat the hassle of driving – and costs about the same too!
Still, perhaps the best part about the whole day was having this awesome picture snapped with the legendary ‘Oor Wullie’ from the Dandy Comics! What a cracker!
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For more tips and suggestions on places to visit with great access, why not check out ‘Accessible Brussels: 10 Things to See and Do’ – and get those inspiration juices flowing?!