Clootie City
December 6th 2025
According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), Dundee earned this nickname from its long history of textile manufacturing.
The earliest example identified so far comes long after the decline of the jute industry, appearing in Scotland on Sunday in July 1991: “Clootie City will be humming day and night with the onset of the Dundee Folk Festival”. However, the lack of an explainer here suggests the name was already in use and understood.
The Herald has been the most consistent source for the term in print. The following comes from October 1994: “There has been a spate of fires of late … the Fair City has lost three nightspots in the past year and Clootie City two in as many weeks”.
Then, in September 2001: “[A] solicitor in Clootie City tells us of a witness asked his occupation who replied: ‘Signing on’”.
In September 2015, the National reported that, “a senior councillor in Dundee has dismissed as ‘rubbish’ a report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that claimed ‘Clootie City’ was the most miserable place in Scotland”.
Finally, in March 2020 the Herald’s Diary column hoped to raise spirits and distract from coronavirus news with its favourite jokes: “A Tayside linguist once informed us that the accent of the people of Clootie City is characterised by an extraneous Y at the end of words. Thus, he told us, it is not unusual for a Dundee tradesman to announce that he his ‘awa tae dae a wee job-y’”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
