There’s a reason Dundee is called the City of Discovery and it’s not just because of the famous ship

With hidden treasures and little-known stories lurking around every corner, there really is a lot to discover about Scotland’s fourth-largest city.

A new book Dundee, But Not As We Know It, by Susan McMullan takes the reader on a journey through the city to uncover its forgotten past and people. We’ve picked some of the more unusual and interesting tales that bring the city’s charm to life.

1. Dundee’s Grand Canyon

Stretching 14 miles, the Dighty Burn has been around for several millennia. Its history is so significant, geology experts described it as a miniature Grand Canyon. This is because Dundee is built above rock that came from lava which flowed through the area millions of years ago. Some of this lava is exposed because the burn cut through soft rock, revealing the hard rock underneath. It’s known as Scotland’s hardest-working stream for providing power to industry throughout the centuries, whether that was millponds, drying greens or the 56 mills that were once on the Burn.

2. Jack the Ripper Killed

Dundee’s last execution was of William Henry Bury in April 1889. Originally from Whitechapel, Jack the Ripper territory in London, he moved north with his wife, ex-prostitute Ellen, for work. They lived at 43 Union Street and then 113 Princes Street, where Bury murdered Ellen and hid her in a trunk. He handed himself into police days later. Bury had earlier discussed the Ripper murders with a friend and Ellen’s killing followed a similar pathology to those five prostitutes’ deaths. The hangman and a London detective agreed Bury was the Ripper and there were no more Whitechapel crimes, but his guilt for the Ripper murders can’t be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

3. Dundee’s Dragon

It’s not just Desperate Dan who’s immortalised in the city centre, there’s also a rather scary-looking dragon statue. It symbolises a legend about a farmer in the village of Pitempton, whose nine daughters were said to have been killed by a dragon that waited for them at a local well. The community banded together to hunt the beast and it was eventually killed by a man called Martin, who’d loved the eldest daughter. The area was named Strike-Martin, which became Strathmartine, a name used for street names and a region of Dundee to this day.

4. The Law Tunnel

The Dundee Law (meaning hill) is 572ft high and the plug of an extinct volcano. What many don’t know is there’s a 984ft tunnel running through it. When it opened in 1831 it was one of the first passenger train tunnels in Scotland. In the 1870s some of the Lord Provost’s silver went missing and was eventually found stashed in the tunnel. It’s been a mushroom farm, bomb shelter and rubbish tip. The two main entrances were built over in the 1980s and now the only known access is from a manhole in a housing estate.

5. Unsung WAR Heroes

A working-class couple helped bring down a Nazi spy ring. Mary Curran was a cleaner in a hairdresser’s on Kinloch Street run by Jessie Jordan, who Mary instantly disliked. But she never expected to find maps under the cash register and lino, including one showing the River Tay with a Zeppelin overhead. Mary and husband John reported it to MI5, who began a watch on the address. Letters intercepted included one from a Nazi agent detailing plans to assassinate a US Colonel and blame it on Russia. The Currans were paid the grand sum of £1 and it was only 70 years later that their daughter revealed the story.

6. Dundee’s Other Ship

Everyone knows of the RRS Discovery, Captain Scott’s polar exploration ship, but HMS Frigate Unicorn, made from 1,000 oak trees and launched in 1824, is the oldest British-built warship still afloat and one of the six oldest ships in the world. The 175-year-old vessel is also the most completely original ship in the world surviving from the Golden Age of Sail. Brought to Dundee in 1873 as a drill ship for training, she is open to the public at her berth in Victoria Dock.

7. Frankenstein’s Visit

Six years before the publication of the classic tale, its author Mary Shelley (then Godwin) was sent to Dundee by her father. Staying at the home of William Baxter opened Mary’s eyes to a different way of living. The Cottage, as the Baxter home was known, is in her novel. The Baxters are said to have provided the basis for her fictional family and the beach and hills around Dundee sparked Mary’s imagination. She returned to London two years later in 1814 and her book was published in 1818. Today a commemorative plaque is on the site on South Baffin Street where The Cottage stood.

8. First man in Britain to Dissect an Elephant

In 1706, an Indian elephant on exhibition around the north of Scotland collapsed and died near Broughty Ferry. Physician Dr Patrick Blair was given permission to dissect the carcass, with the help of local butchers, making him the first in the country to do so.

His findings were published and he was awarded a Doctor of Medicine in 1712. He went on to become a part of Lord Nairn’s Battalion in the 1715 Jacobite rebellion and only escaped a death sentence after his capture, thanks to the influence of friends and scientists.

9. Leaning Tower of Dundee

Never mind Pisa, Dundee’s tower has a story all of its own. Built during the jute and linen boom in the city by manufacturers the Cox brothers, the 282ft Cox’s Stack contains a million red and yellow bricks and was built so tall to keep the air clean for mill workers below. The lean is caused by an underground chamber in the foundations and in the 1990s it was filled in with concrete to prevent a collapse.

10. Aspirin Pioneer

Dr Thomas John MacLagan’s legacy will live for ever. Making his home at 136 Nethergate during his time at the former Dundee Royal Infirmary he introduced improved diets for patients and promoted the use of medicinal wine. But it was his time as a GP, seeing so many cases of rheumatism, that was his real legacy. In 1874 he used salicin, from the bark of white willow trees, to carry out a trial on eight patients suffering rheumatism. Within 48 hours, their condition improved. Two years later he published his findings. Because of them, and investigations in Germany, the drug known as aspirin was created and has helped countless millions deal with pain.

Dundee, But Not As We Know It is available from Black & White Publishing. Susan launches the book in Waterstones Dundee at 1pm on Saturday, May 16.