Have you heard of the International Festival of Stone? If not, you’ll learn all about this celebration of our traditional building material in the leading article of Newsflash 71.
Inside, we take a look at plans for a recovery village and the recent proposals for an active travel network; the barriers standing the way of more city centre residential developments; and much more. Click here to read this issue.
Thursday 15 January 2026, 7.00 pm
Talk by Professor Rob Duck
The opening of the Dundee and Perth Railway in 1847 brought great economic benefits. However, in the west end of Dundee it initiated unprecedented environmental devastation, severing the connection between the land and the Tay. The coastal ‘paradise’ known as Will’s Braes between Invergowrie and Magdalen Green, much treasured by the town’s inhabitants, was almost completely destroyed with loss of botanical, geological and recreational amenity, together with the creation of pollutant-filled lagoons. This talk explores the changes that have taken place along this once natural ‘Riverside’ to the present day.
Rob Duck is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Geoscience at the University of Dundee and Chair of the Tay Estuary Forum.
This talk will take place in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm. Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.
Thursday 20 November 2025, 7.00 pm
Talk by Iain Flett
Dundee citizens had two layers of government between 1975 and 1996: a top tier of Tayside Regional Council, which dealt with police, fire, roads and civil engineering; and the City of Dundee District Council, which was left with burials, licensing, museums and libraries. For a longer period from 1824 until 1894 (when Dundee became a unitary County of a City), it was much the same: Dundee Police Commissioners dealt with fire, police and civil engineering; and Dundee Town Council dealt with licensing, burials and eventually libraries.
‘Police’ in Scotland did not just mean bobbies on the beat; it meant good management of police, fire, public safety and sanitation. So the Police Improvement Act of 1871 dealt with lands for public markets and for public parks (i.e. Balgay); to make new streets (Commercial Street) and widen existing streets (Seagate); and, most importantly for post-cholera Dundee, to make an outfall sewer. The Police Commissioners were also meticulous in proudly recording their astounding achievements in a photograph album appropriately called Dundee Old and New.
Popular Dundee historian and archivist Iain Flett will take you through this—and you can weep at the déjà vu of mediaeval buildings being swept aside in the name of progress.
This talk will be a joint event with Dundee Historic Environment Trust and will take place in the Dundee Art Society Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm. Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.
Thursday 16 October, 7.00 pm
The Awards ceremony for the two-yearly DCT Awards will take place in October.
The Judging Panel for the Dundee Civic Trust Awards 2025 visited five shortlisted projects in August:
Two categories were considered: the DCT Award 2025 for new- build/retrofit buildings, and the DCT/Dundee Historic Environment Trust Conservation Award 2025 for those projects restoring and preserving the city’s built heritage and historic buildings.
The Awards Ceremony will take place at 7 pm on 16 October in the Dundee Art Society Gallery, Roseangle – all are welcome!
Thursday 18 September 2025, 7.00 pm
Talk by Willie Watt
Dundee Civic Trust restarts its popular series of winter evening talks on Thursday 18 September, when local architect Willie Watt will give us an illustrated talk based on his own sketch books entitled Drawing on the Vernacular – Orkney’s North Isles.
Willie led Nicoll Russell Studios’ analysis of vernacular buildings in Sanday, Stronsay, Shapinsay and Westray via sequential sketches supported by interactive sketching workshops which attracted locals, lay people, professional artists, archaeologists and architects. The process entailed looking at and considering the buildings around them slowly and considering the sense of place, change, regeneration, appropriateness, resilience, inappropriateness, heritage and value. These in turn are promoting the islands and furthering their interpretation.
This highly visual talk based on Willie’s delightful sketches explores those places, reflects upon the value of the vernacular and lessons learned.
The talk will take place in Dundee Art Society’s Roseangle Gallery, starting at 7.00 pm (19:00). Guests are always welcome and there will be the opportunity to chat over a glass of wine afterwards.