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Dundee, Balgay Park, Mills Observatory
Observatory (20th Century)
Site Name Dundee, Balgay Park, Mills Observatory
Classification Observatory (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Balgay House Policies; Balgay Hill
Canmore ID 233403
Site Number NO33SE 540.03
NGR NO 37707 30769
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/233403
- Council Dundee, City Of
- Parish Dundee (Dundee, City Of)
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District City Of Dundee
- Former County Angus
NO33SE 540.03 37707 30769
Formerly entered as NO33SE 541.
Mills Observatory [NAT]
OS 1:1250 map, 1977.
Publication Account (2013)
BALGAY PARK
Three parks in one: Balgay, ‘the People’s Own Park’, opened in 1871 (NO 3785 3075, NO33SE 540.00), Lochee, gifted by Cox Brothers (NO 37751
31048, NO33SE 452), and Victoria Parks, plus the Western Necropolis and Mills Observatory - a Victorian 10” refractor telescope by T Cooke,
York, in a 1935 papier mâché dome by Grubb Parsons, Newcastle, (NO 37707 30769, NO33SE 540.03). The only comparable dome by that firm
is in Toronto. These last hills are joined by an elegantly arched cast iron footbridge of 1873 (NO 37605 30745, NO33SE 540.01) with Telford-style
crossed braced spandrels designed by George Hird, Burgh Engineer’s Department. The bridge was refurbished by Dundee City Council in 2005-8.
A bandstand pavilion of 1877, damaged by fire in 1993 was reconstructed as an open-air pergola in 1997, the better to show its original (Saracen?) iron spandrels (NO37635 30652, NO33SE 540.02).
M Watson, 2013
Ref: The Treasures of Balgay (2010)
