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West Craigie

Between 1893 and 1899, Dundee Football Club moved between three sites. Initially, the club’s home ground was at West Craigie on the east side of the city, then relocation to Carolina Port at the riverside and finally, a move to Dens Park which remains the Club’s home to the present day.

The world’s earliest football trophy was won by the 93rd Highland Regiment when they defeated Edinburgh University “Foot Ball Club* 3-0 in 1851. The Association code of football arrived in Scotland during the late 1860s.

As football became established, rules and organised leagues were followed by the regulation of pitch markings. The country’s first association club, Queens Park FC was constituted in Glasgow during 1867. In Dundee, newspaper reports from the 1880s refer to “West Craigie Park” as one of a number of venues hosting association matches in the Victorian city.

The “Park” was farmland which was offered for short-term lets to sports clubs and organisers of events such as carnivals and Highland games by the Batchelor family of West Craigie. Farm buildings were located north of Arbroath Road Church (demolished) and to the west of Baxter Park.

In 1893, during the period leading up to Dundee Football and Athletic Club’s formation, ground at West Craigie was leased from the Batchelors “with a playing pitch of 120 yards long by 75 yards broad, quite level and turfed”.

A timber grandstand was commissioned by the Club and constructed, by Thos. Macaulay Joiners of North Tay Street. The 1000 seat stand was erected adjacent Baxter Park Terrace during the summer of 1893 to host spectators attending home fixtures during the 1893-4 League campaign.

Dundee’s inaugural match was played against Glasgow Rangers on 12th August 1893 and resulted in a 3-3 draw. The stay at West Craigie proved to be short lived. In the spring of 1894, the Club re-located to the Dundee Athletic Club Grounds at Carolina Port to the east of Lindsay and Low’s preserves and confectionery factory in the harbour area of the city. (later home to HMS Ambrose, a submarine base in the 1940s)

After the end of Word War One, the Scottish Welfare Football Association was formed to boost morale among factory workers. During 1920, the West Craigie ground was taken over by the nearby Lilybank Foundry and used by their welfare team.

In 1936, Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd., owners of the Lilybank works, sold most of the land to Dundee Corporation to be later developed for housing.

Credits: Andy Mitchell, Kris Scrimgeour, Brian King, Jim Wilkie, Jim Corstorphine

Carolina Port

Old maps of Dundee show “Carolina Port” positioned about half a mile north of its current location on the bank of the River Tay. In the late 1700s, the river estuary’s shoreline ran north of the existing Dock Street. Crawford’s plan of 1793 showed a glass works on the site and a small pier providing direct access to the river. The factory did not survive beyond the early 1800s.

As Dundee’s harbour area was enlarged and extended east from the city centre, new building land was reclaimed from the Tay, initially to facilitate development of the Dundee and Arbroath Joint Railway. Gradually, the man-made shoreline expanded south and east into the Tay estuary.

Although by the 1880s the glass works was long gone, the name Carolina Port bacame associated with a new location on Dundee’s waterfront. Open space created by land reclamation offered a level surface to host a range of sporting activities.

Press reports from 1884 recorded football being played at Carolina Port, naming teams like East Craigie, Edenbank, Thistlebank and Western Athletic. It is possible these sides competed in junior association leagues with matches being played on roughly marked out temporary pitches as was customary at the time.

In August 1890, Carolina Port hosted the Highland and Agricultural Society’s three-day annual show. (later Royal Highland Show) Plans prepared for the event record that preparatory work included erection of a viewing stand beside the horse ring which formed a centrepiece for the show layout. The stand was left intact to be used for a military tournament which was held after the showground had been dismantled.

At some point during 1891, East End (later one of Dundee FC’s two constituent clubs) secured a lease from Dundee Athletic Ground’s Company and Carolina Port was rebranded as a multi-purpose sports venue in July of that year. James Mathew’s plan of 1892 shows the sports arena formally laid out and enclosed with a grandstand adjacent the river on the south side of the ground.

During 1894, after a short-lived stay at West Craigie Park, Dundee Football and Athletic Club moved home to Carolina Port. From 1894 until December 1898 when Dundee FC was liquidated, Carolina Port remained the club’s home ground.

At the end of 1899, Carolina Port was abandoned as a sporting venue and industry related sites gradually overlaid the sports ground. At the east end of the land reclaimed from the river, HMS Condor was established as a seaplane base in WW1.

Credits: Kris Scrimgeour, Alain Wright RHASS Karen Mitchell

Dens Park

During the 1800s, Dundee’s population expanded to 130,000 or more. At least half the city’s workers were employed in jute mills or related industry. In some areas, factory owners who once resisted their employees playing football had a change of heart. Sport was perceived to keep factory labour fit for for work and the formation of works teams helped promote workforce solidarity.

When the reconstituted Dundee FC moved home to Dens Park in 1899, at least three textile works were located adjacent the site. Many more factories were within walking distance of the ground. The surge of interest in football meant that the club benefited from a captive audience on the doorstep.

A programme of ground improvements was put in place in advance of the 1899-1900 Scottish League Division 1 season. A playing pitch 112 x 75 yards was formed on an east-west axis using “black earth” over upfilled ground.

In addition to the playing surface, a cycle track, two stands and banked terracing were constructed. It was envisaged that Dens Park would hold around 20,000 spectators and on 9th August 1899, a public notice advised supporters that season tickets were available for purchase from the club’s offices at 107 Murraygate.

Dundee FC’s opening home fixture on the 21st August 1899 was a friendly arranged with St Bernard FC, the Edinburgh club which took its name from St Bernard’s Well, a natural spring on the Water of Leith. The opening ceremony was a huge civic occasion and the closely fought match ended in one goal apiece. DFC’s Fred McDiarmid (later Spurs) was awarded a gold medal as the club’s first player to score a goal at Dens Park.

Although tempting to speculate that crowd safety was unlikely to be a significant issue in 1899, five years earlier Dundee’s Burgh Engineer raised concerns about the stability of the Carolina Port grandstand. Early on Saturday 30th September 1899, a gale lifted the roof off Dens Park’s main stand causing severe damage and postponement of the scheduled Dundee v Rangers match.

Three years after Dens opened, part of the south-west terracing at Ibrox Park collapsed; a tragic episode which raised questions about the suitability of timber structures to support large crowds attending football matches. On the eve of the Scottish Cup 3rd round replay between Dundee FC and Celtic on 27 February 1904, the Evening Telegraph reported that the west end timber terracing at Dens had been removed and the “side portion” had been strengthened. A crowd of 21,000 fans packed into the ground to watch a match which ended goalless.

Credits: Alex Perry, Karen Mitchell, Norrie Price, Simon Inglis, Brian King