The Berry Train
Coldside Nature Trail
Choo – choo! Hop on the Berry Train and discover 10 green spaces to play and connect with nature in Coldside. Meet the lovely communities and families who care about Coldside's environment.
The Berry Train Trail Map
Pick up your map at the Maxwell Centre to draw each of the 10 animals from each space and bring them back for a wee prize!
Not sure what it’s all about?
Click on the map locations or scroll down to watch a film about each place and the people you might meet in these nature reserves, parks, creative spaces and gardens. Get ideas for games and fun, with information about what else is available for families.
Hilltown Park and Maxwell Garden
Visit Hilltown Park and Maxwell Garden
Maxwell Community Garden offers a programme of free and accessible activities for children and young people, families and community members to connect with nature and people. Often food growing and cooking is involved, you can borrow tools and get free plants for your own garden. Personalised support or signposting is available too.
Hilltown Park has a play park, beautiful trees, sports equipment and a large green for free play. There is a cosy seating area surrounded by a community orchard, with community arts throughout. Read about community designs for Hilltown Park on this blog. Listen to Hilltown Roots and Recipes audiotrail and find interesting local history here
*Accessible toilets in the Maxwell Centre and Hilltown Community Centre.
Play
sun printing, den making, water play, creative play
Nature
bug trails, frog watching, berry picking, bird sensor, bug hotels, food growing, foraging…and a Toadstool Trail!
Refreshments
Pop into Maxwell Centre, the Haven or Hilltown Community Centre for a cuppy, and sometimes soup or lunch (Check their calendars!)
DPM Graffiti Park
Visit DPM Graffiti Park
Did you know the longest legal graffiti wall is in the Hilltown (Coldside)?
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This park is hidden at the top of the hill and most years (since 2009) it hosts the Dundee Graffiti Jam – bringing together street artists from around the world who put incredible colours, patterns, murals and lettering to its walls. Murals | Dundee Graffiti Jam | Scotland
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You’re welcome to bring your own cans and get painting as it’s a legal graffiti wall (all around an old football pitch) – Dundee has a few other spots to go and see or make street art: Mary Ann Lane,
tunnel at Monymusk Park and Seabraes. You can do a walking trail around Coldside and discover many great examples of street art that are often related to local stories from Dundee, protesting about social issues or a celebration of our culture and people.
Check out any upcoming tours here.
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Or explore where the murals are and make your own route!
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​The site is accessible from Canning St or Mains Rd and has benches in its outer space
Play
Art, photography, find out about artists and stories behind each piece, run wild or use for a wee gathering with friends!
Refreshments
There are close-by pubs, take aways (including a chippy!) and a supermarket to get a nice picnic. You can also check out Paradise Fruits store for African, Asian and Caribbean food.
Fairmuir Park
Visit Fairmuir Community Garden and Park
The old bowling green in Fairmuir Park was transformed into Fairmuir community garden and is now used to grow flowers and vegetables, hold community events and regular lunches over summer. Everyone is welcome - to help out or simply sit on a bench and enjoy the garden.
Play
outdoor large games, football, sports
Nature
foraging, food growing, wildlife watching, plants and flowers
Miley
Visit Miley
Can you believe you could hop on a train from Lochee to get to Blairgowrie? The Dundee-Newtyle line was the first to carry passengers in Scotland!
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Now, instead of a train, we have a beautiful green corridor packed with native trees, blackberries to be foraged and all sorts of wildlife to be explored.
Volunteers from a local group of the Scottish Wildlife Trust help maintain this magical nature path that just takes 30 minutes to walk, a perfect distance to do with children. They organise walks and
litter picks on a regular basis, check out access and nature information here.
Play
Tunnel games, butterfly or bird spotting, foraging, walking running or cycling.
Nature
Wildflowers, songbirds, bats, grassland, hawthorn, berry bushes and trees.
Refreshments
There is a Fish and Chips take away next to the path off Harefield Rd.
Law
Visit Dundee Law
If you want to be the king or the queen of the castle in Dundee you’ll have to go up the iconic Law. There is a hidden tunnel under the Law, where the same train line as the Miley used to run through.
This volcanic sill (create from volcanic activity around 400 million years ago – before the dinosaurs inhabited our planet!) offers the best views over the whole of Dundee, the Sidlaws and the Tay estuary. You can complete a 40 minute circular walk and enjoy its beautiful grasslands, trees, flowers and wildlife throughout the seasons.
The Dundee Law Heritage project shares more information about access, history, a geocaching trail and a hidden treasures trail here. Part of this project are Friends of Dundee Law, volunteers who help look after and promote the hill. They organise regular family-friendly activities for free.
Play
I Spy, foraging, nature games, slope sliding.
Nature
Red squirrels, kestrels and sparrowhawks, rich variety of trees, mosses, wild flowers, fungi, insects.
Refreshments
Filled rolls or cakes at Rough and Frasers Bakery on the Hilltown, Nicoll’s Rosebank Bakery if coming from the Northern side.
Dudhope Park
Visit Dudhope Park
Dudhope Park is a large green space with views over Dundee, containing a play park, a skate park and tennis, football and basketball grounds for anyone to use. Also is the park is Dundee Therapy Garden and just outside it you'll find Dudhope Multicultural Centre. Friends of Dudhope Park help maintain the park, and you can help too!
Dudhope Castle has a large room and garden available for celebrations via TheCircle. Uppertunity's Interactive Trail is there with outdoor seating in the castle gardens and Serendipities Cafe inside the castle for lunch, drinks and treats.
Play
musical instruments, nature games, tennis, football, basketball, skating, cycling.
Nature
foraging, food growing, bird watching, landscape I-spy, star gazing
Multis
Visit Multis and Central Library
Dundee’s very own skyscapers still rise high over Coldside.
Mostly built in the 1960s and 1970s, they were seen as a solution to overcrowded tenements and poor housing conditions. Coldside’s Dudhope Court is the tallest in town, with 16 storeys but our Berry Train stop is at the Hilltown Multis, with 360 homes.
The small green space by the entry offers a nice view and a couple of benches to stop and catch your breath if you are walking up the hill! It’s the perfect spot to get stuck into a good book from Dundee Central Library – have you got your free Library Card yet? They also offer many activities for children and families.
Play
Green space to run around, slope sliding.
Nature
Wild geese in autumn, gulls, foxes at night, birds and many pets!
Refreshments
The Hilltown is lucky to have many multicultural grocery shops where you can get Polish, Ukranian, African or Asian veggie, fruit or snacks! There is a little Soup shop and various take-aways too.
Eadie's Park
Visit Eadie's Park
Did you know we have an outdoor amphitheatre in Coldside?
It’s part of a beautiful wee park at the bottom of the hill, just opposite the Wellgate, you can access through the stairs behind the bus stops or an accessible ramp just on the right hand side as you start to walk up the Hilltown or from Forebank Rd.
It is well landscaped with a lovely view over the city and has some picnic tables, public art and a wooden adventure play park. The amphitheatre is just outside Dundee’s Dramatic Society’s Little
Theatre, with 4 shows a year and established over 90 years ago!
It is also close to Scrapantics Home | ScrapAntics | Scotland | Art | Community | Play | ScrapStore | recycling in the Wellgate, who offer family sessions and welcome everyone to play together!
There is a hidden abandoned garden behind an open gate just next to the park, if you find it you’ll be able to see what happens when nature takes over!
Play
Hide and seek, theatre play (find the echo spot), church steeple spotting.
Nature
Monkey puzzle tree and other exotic species, birds, secret abandoned garden with pioneer plants that grow quickly and help build soil and even more diverse wildlife!
Refreshments
Hilltown multicultural grocery shops , the Soup shop and various take-aways. Superstores in the Wellgate or City Centre.
Forebank Pocket Park
Visit Forebank Pocket Park
Explore this cosy little park, a great place to meet up after school if you go to Our Lady’s or Rosebank…people from the community and neighbours have put in some planters to grow food, wild strawberries and a little compost heap – a living lab of mighty little worms!
It has a circular shape and nice benches to share some snacks whilst you can do some plant sowing or harvesting. Also great for playing games with your friends and meeting Coldside children’s favourite cat. A family of foxes has been spotted after dark – keep your eyes peeled!
Play
Harvesting, circle games, bug hunts.
Nature
Edible plants, trees and bushes, pollinators, birds, bats, cats, foxes at night.
Refreshments
Hilltown multicultural grocery shops, the Soup shop and various take-aways.
Coldside Campus Playground
Visit Coldside Campus Playground
Wildflowers surround this large playground that can be accessible out of school hours for the community to use. If you walk all the way around it, see if you can find:
A) a little play park with a picnic table
B) a little community garden that is part of the Hilltown Community Centre, who run some activities for families and children
C) a naturally rewilded brownfield site – covered with wild flowers in summer
Children from local community organisation Front Lounge - Front Lounge have been imagining what they would do to make it a better and more nature-friendly playground. A big football pitch has been planned to use up half of the space - do you have any ideas for the other half?
Play
Cycling, bug hunts, flower smelling/picking, running, loose parts play.
Nature
Oyster catchers, city birds, bats, foxes at night, wild flowers, pioneer plants that grow quickly and help build soil and even more diverse wildlife!
Refreshments
Hilltown multicultural grocery shops, the Soup shop and various take-aways.
This is a co-designed project brought to you by a local partnership of families and young journalists, and the Coldside Changemakers circle. Co-facilitated and supported by Dundee Changemakers and Maxwell Centre. Hosted visits and interviews by 10 community groups. Artwork and films by commissioned illustrators Cara Rooney and Suzanne Scott (WhimSicAL LusH) and film-maker Mark McGreehin.
