Ask most people to name Scotland’s oldest city and they’ll say Edinburgh. Some will make a case for Perth, the old royal heartland. A few history buffs might back Glasgow. On paper, they’d all be wrong.
Scotland’s oldest official city is Dundee.
On 26 January 1889, Queen Victoria signed a royal charter raising the Burgh of Dundee to the status of a city. It was the first place in Scotland ever given the title by formal charter. That makes 2026 Dundee’s 137th year as a city. It holds a piece of paper that Edinburgh, for all its castles and closes, never received in quite the same way.
Why “oldest city” is a trick question in Scotland
In England and Wales, a cathedral traditionally made a town a city. Scotland never followed that rule. For centuries, the places that mattered here were the royal burghs: towns granted special trading rights by the Crown.
The first royal burghs were created in the 12th century under King David I. Berwick and Roxburgh are thought to be the earliest, followed by places such as Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling, Dunfermline and Aberdeen. Dundee’s own burgh charter dates to around 1191, under William the Lion. By 1700 Scotland had close to 100 royal burghs.
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth were called cities for hundreds of years, but the title grew up by custom rather than by any document you could frame and hang on a wall. Dundee is different. It has a date, a charter and a royal signature.
How Dundee became Scotland’s first city
By the 1880s Dundee was booming. Its mills spun jute for the world, its whalers sailed north to the Arctic, and its printers and marmalade makers gave it the famous nickname “jute, jam and journalism”. Queen Victoria’s charter followed in January 1889, and the town council formally accepted it on 4 February. Aberdeen had its city status confirmed two years later, in 1891.
Here’s the wonderful twist. When Inverness asked to become a city for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, it was turned down. Reportedly, saying yes might have drawn attention to the fact that Glasgow and Edinburgh had never formally been made cities either. The muddle wasn’t tidied up until 1929, when Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow were made “counties of cities”. Inverness finally got its wish in 2000.
What about Perth?
Perth has a fair claim to be part of this story. It has been known as the Fair City since Sir Walter Scott’s 1828 novel The Fair Maid of Perth, and it was treated as a city for centuries. Then a local government shake-up in 1975 took the status away, and Perth was the only place in Scotland to lose it. After a long campaign, the title was restored in 2012 for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. That’s why Perth can cheekily call itself Scotland’s oldest and newest city.
Scotland’s eight cities today
Scotland now has eight official cities: Aberdeen, Dundee, Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Perth and Stirling. Stirling joined in 2002, and Dunfermline, a royal burgh since the 12th century, became the newest in 2022.
“Edinburgh has the castle, Glasgow has the swagger – but Dundee has the paperwork.” – Love Scotland
Visiting Scotland’s first city
Dundee sits on the north shore of the Firth of Tay and is often called Scotland’s sunniest city. In 2014 it became the UK’s first UNESCO City of Design, and it wears that title well. A few things worth your time:
- V&A Dundee – the first V&A museum outside London, opened on the waterfront in 2018. The striking building is free to wander, and the Scottish Design Galleries are well worth an hour.
- RRS Discovery – Captain Scott’s Antarctic ship was built in Dundee and launched in 1901. Today she’s berthed at Discovery Point, right beside the V&A.
- Dundee Law – climb this extinct volcano for the best view in the city, across both Tay bridges to Fife.
- The McManus – a Gothic Revival gallery and museum telling Dundee’s story, from whaling to comics.
- Broughty Ferry – the seaside suburb with a 15th-century castle, a sandy beach and very good fish and chips.
Getting there: Dundee is roughly an hour and a quarter by train from Edinburgh and around an hour and a half from Glasgow. It also makes a handy base for St Andrews, Glamis Castle and Perth. If you’re visiting in January, look out for “Dundee Day” on the 26th, when locals celebrate the anniversary of the charter.
Over to you
Did you know Dundee was Scotland’s first official city, or were you Team Edinburgh all along? Tell us in the comments which Scottish city you’d crown the oldest, and share this with the friend who always wins the pub quiz.