On Saturday 1st June at noon, 30 members and guests set off on the Society's annual Summer Outing – this year to Dundee to visit Discovery Point and the V&A. Arrival at the museums at 1.45pm gave us three hours to explore both locations in the good weather which lasted all day.
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| The V&A and RSS Discovery in Dundee. (© I.S.Ruddock) |
Discovery Point features both an extensive exhibition on Polar exploration and the RSS Discovery. The latter, launched in 1901 in Dundee, was the last three masted wooden ship to be built in the United Kingdom and carried Scott and Shackleton on 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition. After further scientific voyages and a period as a merchant ship, it ended its days as a training base on the Thames before being brought back to Dundee in 1986 for preservation and restoration. The two elements of Discovery Point combine to tell a fascinating story that one can only get a flavour of in the couple of hours available during an afternoon visit.
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| Participants on the Outing in front of the RSS Discovery. (© I.S.Ruddock) |
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| Members of the Society outside the V&A, Dundee. (© I.S.Ruddock) |
Members were advised to make their way across to the adjacent V&A at about 3.30pm to see the building and to view the permanent Scottish Design Gallery. This gallery provides a representative cross-section of Scottish arts and crafts including silverware, furniture, fashion, engineering and the media and was of such a scale that it could be comfortably browsed in the time available on the Outing.
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| The atrium of the V&A Dundee: can you spot any members of the Society? (© I.S.Ruddock) |
An enjoyable afternoon was completed with dinner at the King Robert Hotel, Bannockburn, following which the group returned to Kirkintilloch soon after the scheduled time of 8.15pm.
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| Some of the Society members and guests who went on the 2019 Outing. (© I.S.Ruddock) |
