River Line Project

Dundee Decides 2018:

Friends’ River Line successfully bid for £20k from the Community Infrastructure Fund to perform a feasibility study. We thank the West End Community Council and the voters of the West End for this show of confidence.

Our proposal

A series of linear gardens running north of the railway line from the Botanic Garden to the Waterfront development, forming a series of distinct galleries on which other cultural and educational contributions can be placed.


Project description


With the advent of the V&A Museum of Design, Dundee, the city will become a significant visitor attraction within Scotland. Other local centres of culture and entertainment, such as museums and theatres, will complete the visitor experience. In this context the Friends of the Botanic Garden are working with its Curator to ensure the Garden retains and improves its role as a major attraction within the city.

The situation of the Garden in the West End of the city offers a unique opportunity to create a green route, via Seabraes and the historic Magdalen Green, which would offer direct access from the Waterfront. The Friends propose to create a sequence of linear gardens running from the botanic garden to the Waterfront and parallel to the railway line, but staying close to the old shoreline on its northern side. Projects of this kind have been tackled with outstanding success in other cities, such as New York’s High Line and Paris’s Coulée verte, both associated with railway lines.

The conceptualised ‘River Line’ would be a series of gardens taking advantage of the varied and particular surroundings that can be found along the route, each acting as a gallery for artworks of various kinds, displays of native habitats and historical briefs covering Dundee’s old shoreline and its uses in times gone by.

By running the path north of the railway line, beneath and close to the old shoreline escarpment, the route will not only be visually appealing, but be a tranquil experience set apart from congestion and pollution. This route crosses privately owned land and all the owners have generously agreed to consider this proposal. There will be many issues to consider ranging from technical feasibility, privacy, security and cost estimations, and a comprehensive feasibility study is essential, which we hope can be met by the Council's Community Infrastructure Fund.

There is presently much discussion about Dundee’s future as a garden city, and the birth of this feature along a beautiful part of its waterfront would be a major step in realising this ambition.


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